One of the major habitats GreenEdge researchers are studying is the sea-ice. We are interested in its optical, physical and chemical features, as well as the life it supports. As such, one of the essential activities at the ice camp is the ice coring. We actually spend the full morning coring the entire ice thickness (which currently varies from 1.15 m to 1.50 m at the study site) with different cores (14.5 and 9 cm diameters) for different purposes, i.e. measurement of temperature and salinity gradients, nutrient content, chlorophyll a biomass, spectral properties, microbial genetic diversity, etc.
Prokaryotic heterotrophs play a key role in marine global carbon fluxes by way of their consumption of dissolved organic matter, respiratory CO2 production and nutrient recycling activities.
Micro-algae transform carbon dioxide (CO2) and nutrients dissolved in the ocean into organic matter and oxygen. This process, photosynthesis, uses sunlight energy. These primary producers then become an energy source for a vital link in the marine food chain, that being herbivorous zooplankton.
