The article tackles one of the unique features of the polar ocean which is sea ice. The thickness and extension of these structures vary with the changes in season, generally taking form during winter months and melts in the summer. It’s is estimated that about half of the winter sea ice melts during the warmer months in the Arctic, the density of which can measure up to a thickness of 2 to 4 meters.

Also within the discussion is the composition of sea ice; during the formation of ice, a salty solution called brine fills the gap between ice crystals. Brine channels form a network of tubes usually with diameters of small micrometers up to several centimeters; within these networks specialized sympagic community or ice–associated ecosystem has highly adapted within this conditions. Sutherland was also mentioned being the first to describe life in Arctic sea ice as “minute vegetable forms of exquisite beauty.” For multitudes of years after which, a great number of scientific studies have been made on The Antarctic and The Arctic with regards to the structural role of sea ice.

There are a number of unsolved scientific questions in studying the deep Arctic basins because of its permanent multi-year ice cover. T3 and NP22, the American and Russians Drifting ice camps, produced the first descriptions of all the plant and animal life in these deep basins. Surprising insights into the biology of different areas such as higher biological activities in ice and water column previously assumed and demonstration of large regional differences in central Arctic areas were revealed by the American trans-polar section in 1994. Recently, considered the most important microorganisms inside the ice, are called Diatoms. This is mainly due to their abundance and productivity yet there are also several hundreds of algae unicellular species that are primary contributors to the sympagic community. Seasonally in ice-covered Arctic waters, the total primary production of algae contributes from 4 up to 26 percent of the total primary production and it is based on the studies of sea ice or the coastal ice and first-year level ice. This fraction can be expected the increase of 50% or more in perennially ice-covered waters because of the shortwave radiation penetrating the water column reduction. The growth of ice bacteria’s depends on ice algae waste materials and dissolved organic materials from the ice. In this extreme habitat, viruses and fungi also have a surprisingly high biological diversity. An ice organism tolerates a wide range of environmental conditions, rapid changes in light intensity, temperature and salinity, etc. These continual changes cause irregular distributions of ice biota inside the floes, with the vastness of which is gathered on the lowermost centimeters of the ice floe. In periods of complete ice coverage, several strong interactions can be observed involving the ice biota and motile organism occurring in the body of water or the planktons.
A number of these relationships and more can be read at The Ocean Explorer website.