Rapid sea-ice variability observed in the Antarctic coastal waters in the last decade is alarming and puzzling the scientific community. In a climate-change scenario, the interconnected physical, biological, and chemical ocean-ice/snow-atmosphere system is now transitioning to an unprecedented and uncertain regime, including the seasonally ice-free conditions in the Southern Ocean. Sea ice is a substrate for algal growth influencing nutrient dynamics, water column stratification, and light availability. Sea ice melting during Spring-summer generates extensive phytoplankton blooms controlling the CO2 draw-down as part of the carbon pump. The ecological consequences of rapidly declining sea ice are unsure, as this will result in earlier and further close-to-coast phytoplankton blooms. The lack of proper representation of processes active in the air-sea-ice interface, vertical mixing, and biogeochemical processes in climate models is attributed to the weak predictability of change in the polar system. Here, we gather data from the Indian Southern Ocean and Antarctic expeditions to understand the exchange of mass/particles and energy across the Air-Ice-Sea interface and its climate relevance.
