Primary production associated with sea ice at Godhavn, Disko, West Greenland

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Abstract
A simple surface operated 14C method for measuring primary production by bottom type ice algae was tested at Godhavn, West Greenland. It proved satisfactory only with regard to algae living in contact with the water below the ice, and only before the ice became porous and watery in connection with melting in the spring. Since grazing does not occur inside the ice and the production : biomass ratio is the same inside as on the surface of the ice, an estimate of production was found by combining production measurements with measurements of chlorophyll a. The estimated total production, primarily by plankton algae taken in the ice, was 0.15 g C/m2 and the greatest biomass about 0.5 mg chlorophyll C/m2 from 4.5 em above to 4.5 em below the ice/water interface. This is a very low production compared to the yearly production of about 90 g e/m2 by the detached algae, but the attained biomass may serve as an inoculum for the spring plankton bloom at Godhavn. Age and time of formation of the ice had a marked effect on the algal content of the ice, while in undisturbed ice microzonation was uniform enough to permit correlations between production and biomass when using ice samples as small as 90 cm2.