Trapped under ice, light-loving algae grow in the dark Arctic winter – Finance Brokerage

Each winter, Baffin Bay freezes over as polar darkness descends over the top of the world.
Come spring, phytoplankton will bloom in these cold waters between Greenland and Canada, bolstering a bustling ecosystem of beluga whales and narwhals (SN: 4/8/20). But scientists have long assumed that the photosynthetic algae remain largely dormant in winter, blocked off from light by thick sea ice and snow.
New research challenges that assumption, however, finding that phytoplankton under the bays ice…

Click here to view the original article.