Amino acid δ13C and δ15N fingerprinting of sea ice and pelagic algae in Canadian Arctic and Subarctic Seas

The on-going decline in Arctic sea ice represents a significant loss of habitat for sea ice algae, which are a major contributor to primary production in the Arctic. Data on sea ice algal production is limited due to difficulties in both accessing sea-ice and sampling under-ice algae. Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of amino acids (AAs) is emerging as a powerful tool to trace element origins and biogeochemical processes in marine food webs and may address the knowledge gaps in sea ice algal productivity dynamics. Here we measured δ 13 C-AA and δ 15 N-AA in natural communities of sea ice and pelagic algae collected from regions offshore Labrador and Nunavut, Canada. Significant difference in δ 13 C-AA patterns between sea ice and pelagic algae was observed in different size classes. This difference was further supported by multivariate analyses based on normalized δ 13 C of essential amino acids (EAAs), which demonstrated a clear separation between sea ice and pelagic algae. Beta (β) values and trophic position (TP) calculated from δ 15 N of Glutamic Acid and Phenylalanine (Phe) and ∑V parameter for microbial resynthesis indicated a slightly higher heterotrophic biomass in pelagic and sea ice samples as compared to cultured samples. This finding is consistent with the Phe-normalized δ 15 N of Alanine and Threonine, which provided better separations between sea ice/pelagic algae and other end-member groups. Overall, our study provides first insights into the potential differences in δ 13 C-AA and δ 15 N-AA patterns between sea ice and pelagic algae and suggests carbon of sea ice origins may be distinguished from pelagic sources using CSIA-AA approach. These observations highlight the potential of CSIA-AA to estimate proportional contributions of sea ice and pelagic algae to export production and efficiency of benthic-pelagic coupling in polar marine environments.