PostDoctoral Research Fellowship

Aumack Craig F, Palisades NY

Investigators

Abstract

The PI proposes to investigate the importance of ice algae in marine consumer diets pre- and post-export events, using DNA isolated from consumers? guts and stable carbon isotopic signatures. This effort is motivated by consideration of the physiological necessity of many marine organisms to acquire polyunsaturated fatty acids from their diets, likely making ice algae a crucial dietary supplement. Further motivated by the rapid and ongoing Arctic climate changes and sea-ice recession, he will also investigate the nutritional quality of ice algae under varying abiotic conditions using biochemical analyses. This research will provide additional understanding of ice algae?s dietary importance to underlying communities both as a relief from resource limitations associated with ice cover, and as long term nutritional nourishment. This knowledge is essential to assessing the value of the ice community to underlying systems and is paramount to predicting ecosystem wide consequences to rapidly changing Arctic environments. This award supports a post-doctoral fellowship. It is designed to provide training that will strengthen the career of the post-doctoral associate in Arctic ecosystem research. Sea ice algae are believed to be an important part of the marine food web in the Arctic. The thickness of sea ice and the associated snow cover, as well as the timing of sea ice melt in spring and freeze up in autumn, all may affect the productivity of the ice algae community and, consequently, the organisms that feed on these algae. All of these properties may change because of interannual variability or long term trends in climate. Understanding how the ice algae respond will inform managers and policymakers, as well as local residents, of how the larger Arctic marine ecosystem may be impacted.