Sea Ice Ecologist
Dr Klaus Meiners
Dr Meiners been working at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre since 2005, after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (USA) and receiving a PhD (2002) and MSc (1999) in Biological Oceanography from Kiel University (Germany). Since 2010, he has been employed as a research scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division.
His work, strongly dependent on collaboration with sea-ice physicists, biogeochemists and ecosystem modelers, centers on the structuring role of Antarctic sea ice in Southern Ocean ecosystem function. Dr Meiners’ main focus has been research on the dynamics of ice-associated algal communities and their importance for Antarctic marine food webs.
social & academic profiles
Current Research
Dr Meiners contributes to the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre “Biological response to environmental change” and “Sea ice processes and change” projects. He is using a combination of laboratory experiments, field-experiments and data-mining to understand the impacts of changing sea ice conditions on Antarctic marine ecosystems.
Current activities include:
Projects to understand links between ice algal distribution and physical sea ice properties in the Antarctic pack ice and fast ice zones.
Sea ice ecological and biogeochemical research on nutrient cycling, dissolved and particulate carbon dynamics, and sea ice algal primary productivity.
Development of bio-optical methods to measure sea ice algal biomass on medium scales using Remotely Operated Vehicles.
The overall aim of this work is to inform and evaluate modeling approaches.
Selected Publications
Miller LA, Fripiat F, Else BGT, Bowman JS, Brown KA, Collins RE, Ewert M, Fransson A, Gosselin M, Lannuzel D, Meiners KM, Michel C, Nishioka J, Nomura D, Papadimitriou S, Russell LM, Sørensen LL, Thomas DN, Tison JL, van Leeuwe MA, Vancoppenolle M, Wolff EW, Zhou J (2015) Methods for biogeochemical studies of sea ice: the state of the art, caveats, and recommendations. Elementa-Oceans, doi: 0.12952/journal.elementa.000038
Underwood GJC, Aslam SN, Norman L, Meiners KM, Laybourn-Parry J, Niemi A, Christine M, Thomas DN (2013) Predictable relationships between carbohydrates, exopolymers, physical conditions and algal biomass in Antarctic and Arctic sea ice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110: 15734-15739, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1302870110
Vancoppenolle M, Meiners KM, Michel C, Bopp L, Brabant F, Carnat G, Delille B, Lannuzel D, Madec G, Moreau S, Tison J.-L., van der Merwe P (2013) Role of sea ice in global biogeochemical cycles: Emerging views and challenges. Quaternary Science Reviews, 1-24, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.04.011
Meiners KM, Vancoppenolle M, Thanassekos S, Dieckmann GS, Thomas DN, Tison J.-L, Arrigo KR, Garrison DL, McMinn A, Lannuzel D, van der Merwe P Swadling KM, Smith Jr. WO, Melnikov I, Raymond B (2012) Chlorophyll a in Antarctic sea ice from historical ice core data. Geophysical Research Letters 39, L21602, doi:10.1029/2012GL053478
Meiners KM, Norman L, Granskog MA, Krell A, Heil P, Thomas DN (2011) Physicoecobiogeochemistry of East Antarctic pack ice during the winter–spring transition. Deep-Sea Research II 58: 1172-1181
Authorised by the CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre October 2019.
The ACE CRC was established and supported under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program.
core participants
