Life inside the sea ice!

Believe it or not. Sea ice captures a whole community of organisms. Diatoms, green algae, flagellates and small copepods host small cavities and channels of sea ice. An entire food network from primary producers to decomposers lives in the icy environment.

Ice organism live both inside the ice and in pockets of saline solution that remain unfrozen because of high salinity. How to

stand the cold conditions? Ice microbes have a high content of margarine-like unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fatty acids that remain liquid in low temperatures. For some of them the icy conditions are not harsh at all – they even favour it.

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