Factors driving pCO2 dynamics in sea ice during a large-scale ice tank experiment

According to previous studies, pCO2 fluxes measured over Arctic sea ice are higher than those measured over Antarctic sea ice. We hypothesized that this was due to enhanced respiration in Arctic sea ice, as a consequence of higher riverine inputs of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) into Arctic seawater. We tested this hypothesis during the Interice V experiment at the HSVA (Hamburg) environmental test basin facility.
We reproduced the growth and decay cycle of sea ice in replicate mesocosms (1 m3) filled with North Sea water (NSW series), and compared these with another series of mesocosms to which humic-rich river water had been added (10%) to increase the DOC concentration (R series). Primary producers were excluded from the experiment. The evolution of the temperature, salinity, DOC, pCO2 and bacterial biomass and production were measured in ice sampled at regular intervals throughout the experiment, as well as in the under-ice water. In addition, ice-air pCO2 fluxes were continuously monitored over both NSW and R mesocosms.
pCO2 values in ice were higher in the R ice than in the NSW ice. This is attributed to the DOC content and bacterial respiration, rather than to the ice physical properties (i.e., ice permeability constrained by the ice temperature and salinity). Indeed, R ice had higher DOC content and bacterial production than the NSW ice while both showed similar physical properties.
The evolution of the ice-air pCO2 fluxes was consistent with the evolution of pCO2 in ice. The fluxes were, as expected, positive (from sea ice to the atmosphere) during ice growth and negative (from the atmosphere to the ice) during ice melt.