Data

Phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean

University of Tasmania, Australia
Schlosser, Tamara ; Strutton, Peter ; Baker, Kirralee ; Boyd, Philip
Viewed: [[ro.stat.viewed]] Cited: [[ro.stat.cited]] Accessed: [[ro.stat.accessed]]
ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2FANDS&rft_id=info:doi10.25959/45Z8-1D81&rft.title=Phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean&rft.identifier=10.25959/45Z8-1D81&rft.description=The Southern Ocean spring phytoplankton bloom impacts regional food webs and the marine carbon cycle, but we do not fully understand which drivers – environmental, ecological, or biological – control the timing or productivity of the spring bloom. Nutrients, and particularly iron, are likely replete in the austral winter, but the importance of underwater light availability and grazing pressure are topics of ongoing discussion. Furthermore, in the extreme polar winter, phytoplankton physiology may impart additional constraints on phytoplankton variability when ocean mixing decreases. Of particular interest is the impact of highly variable sea ice on the Southern Ocean environment, where over the last decade the Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE) has recorded record highs and lows. The anomalous low in 2023 suggested a new reduced sea-ice state, with unknown impacts on phytoplankton bloom dynamics, including bloom phenology and magnitude. Such changes in SIE will alter the physical environment, and in turn will have profound implications for the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Phytoplankton are especially sensitive to such changes in the physical environment, but understanding and predicting future changes resulting from a reduced sea-ice state remains challenging.Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlannedStatement: The project primarily employs Argo observations, accessed via the OneArgo-Mat toolbox (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6588042). The ERA5 reanalysis data this study employed can be accessed from the Copernicus data store (Hersbach, H. et al., 2018). Frontal locations were determined using the data available at E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information (https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00016, https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00021). Time-averaged front locations were provided by Park & Isabelle (2019) at https://doi.org/10.17882/59800. We complement the Argo observations with numerical model simulations using GOTM, which is published on GitHub: https://github.com/gotm-model/ (GOTM version 6). The codes to reproduce the data analysis and run GOTM can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10807003. Additional data processing methods are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13363768.&rft.creator=Schlosser, Tamara &rft.creator=Strutton, Peter &rft.creator=Baker, Kirralee &rft.creator=Boyd, Philip &rft.date=2025&rft.coverage=westlimit=-179.99; southlimit=-90.00; eastlimit=179.99; northlimit=-45.00&rft.coverage=westlimit=-179.99; southlimit=-90.00; eastlimit=179.99; northlimit=-45.00&rft_rights=Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&rft_rights=Cite data as: Schlosser, T., Strutton, P., Baker, K., & Boyd, P. (2025). Phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean [Dataset]. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. https://doi.org/10.25959/45Z8-1D81&rft_subject=oceans&rft_subject=Antarctic&rft_subject=Southern Ocean&rft_subject=phytoplankton&rft_subject=phytoplankton blooms&rft_subject=phytoplankton dynamics&rft_subject=food webs&rft_subject=marine carbon cycle&rft_subject=climate change&rft_subject=PHYTOPLANKTON&rft_subject=TURBULENCE&rft_subject=SEA ICE&rft_subject=Global / Oceans | Global / Oceans | Southern Ocean&rft_subject=Environmental Monitoring&rft_subject=ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES&rft_subject=ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT&rft_subject=Community Ecology&rft_subject=BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES&rft_subject=ECOLOGY&rft_subject=Biological Oceanography&rft_subject=EARTH SCIENCES&rft_subject=OCEANOGRAPHY&rft_subject=Physical Oceanography&rft.type=dataset&rft.language=English Access the data
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Cite data as: Schlosser, T., Strutton, P., Baker, K., & Boyd, P. (2025). Phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean [Dataset]. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. https://doi.org/10.25959/45Z8-1D81

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The Southern Ocean spring phytoplankton bloom impacts regional food webs and the marine carbon cycle, but we do not fully understand which drivers – environmental, ecological, or biological – control the timing or productivity of the spring bloom. Nutrients, and particularly iron, are likely replete in the austral winter, but the importance of underwater light availability and grazing pressure are topics of ongoing discussion. Furthermore, in the extreme polar winter, phytoplankton physiology may impart additional constraints on phytoplankton variability when ocean mixing decreases. Of particular interest is the impact of highly variable sea ice on the Southern Ocean environment, where over the last decade the Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE) has recorded record highs and lows. The anomalous low in 2023 suggested a new reduced sea-ice state, with unknown impacts on phytoplankton bloom dynamics, including bloom phenology and magnitude. Such changes in SIE will alter the physical environment, and in turn will have profound implications for the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Phytoplankton are especially sensitive to such changes in the physical environment, but understanding and predicting future changes resulting from a reduced sea-ice state remains challenging.

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Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlanned
Statement: The project primarily employs Argo observations, accessed via the OneArgo-Mat toolbox (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6588042). The ERA5 reanalysis data this study employed can be accessed from the Copernicus data store (Hersbach, H. et al., 2018). Frontal locations were determined using the data available at E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information (https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00016, https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00021). Time-averaged front locations were provided by Park & Isabelle (2019) at https://doi.org/10.17882/59800. We complement the Argo observations with numerical model simulations using GOTM, which is published on GitHub: https://github.com/gotm-model/ (GOTM version 6). The codes to reproduce the data analysis and run GOTM can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10807003. Additional data processing methods are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13363768.

Notes

Credit
This research was supported by the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) (Project Number SR200100008).

Issued: 28 08 2025

Data time period: 2022-08-31 to 2025-01-01

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-179.99,-86 0,-86 179.99,-86 179.99,-45 0,-45 -179.99,-45 -179.99,-86

0,-67.5

text: westlimit=-179.99; southlimit=-90.00; eastlimit=179.99; northlimit=-45.00

Subjects
Antarctic | Biological Sciences | Biological Oceanography | Community Ecology | Earth Sciences | Ecology | Environmental Science and Management | Environmental Sciences | Environmental Monitoring | Global / Oceans | Global / Oceans | Southern Ocean | Oceanography | PHYTOPLANKTON | Physical Oceanography | SEA ICE | Southern Ocean | TURBULENCE | climate change | food webs | marine carbon cycle | oceans | phytoplankton | phytoplankton blooms | phytoplankton dynamics |

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Other Information
Data analysis and figure plotting files for Journal of Geophysical Research (2025) publication (Data for: Latitudinal trends in drivers of the Southern Ocean spring bloom onset)

doi : https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10807002

Processing files and relevant datasets for Elementa (2025) publication (Data for: Phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean in high vs. low sea ice years)

doi : https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13363767

Browse and download data from IMAS stored copy

url : https://data.imas.utas.edu.au/attachments/9af1bf2e-a981-4d56-af9c-f29af82c4af6

Related source code: General Ocean Turbulence Model (GOTM)

url : https://github.com/gotm-model/

Schlosser, T. L., Strutton, P. G., Baker, K., & Boyd, P. W. (2025). Latitudinal trends in drivers of the Southern Ocean spring bloom onset. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 130, e2024JC021099. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JC021099 (Associated publication)

doi : https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JC021099

Schlosser T. L., Strutton, P.G. (2025). Phytoplankton blooms in the new Southern Ocean sea-ice regime. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 13 (1): 00055. https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2024.00055 (Associated publication)

doi : https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2024.00055

Identifiers
ACN 633 798 857