The drifting sea ice in the assessment area is habitat for a specialised ecosystem of bacteria, and many species of microalgae and microfauna, which is not well described. Though the sea ice system generally contributes relatively little to the annual biological production, the Greenland Sea is an important sea ice area in an Arctic context. Therefore there is a need for a better understanding of the sea ice ecosystem. Especially background information for evaluating the potential for oil degradation by ice biota is relevant in an oil spill context.
Changes in ice thickness, crystalline structure, salinity, porosity and density are important for the community structure of the sea-ice organisms. Sea-ice environments are highly dynamic and have large variations in temperature, salinity and nutrient availability. These variations lead to high degree of horizontal patchiness in microbial sea-ice communities. Furthermore, the microbial sea-ice community in the Arctic is highly diverse, and one of the most important structural parameters for the community is the age of ice (first-year ice vs. multiyear ice).