Arctic spring: key processes influencing timing of primary production in ice-covered waters

Dr. Mundy seeks to understand variability and change in the Arctic marine ecosystem due to climate change and the resulting loss of sea ice. In particular, he studies physical and biological processes controlling the timing, location, magnitude, and fate of primary producers in the ice-covered environment. 

Climate warming and the rapidly disappearing Arctic sea ice cover have imposed new variability and likely directional change on the Arctic marine ecosystem. Improving our understanding of variability and change in the polar marine ecosystem in the face of a rapidly changing environment underpins my current research goals. My research has a particular focus on primary producers in the Arctic marine ice-covered ecosystem, which include sea ice algae, ice melt water (brackish) flora and phytoplankton. My most recent endeavours include: biological oceanographic studies of the central Canadian Arctic, Canadian Beaufort Sea (investigating phytoplankton bloom dynamics, sea ice bio-optics and ice algal productivity, photophysiology and taxonomy) and Hudson Bay (investigating freshwater and dissolved organic carbon input and export), and biophysical modeling of the ice algae ecosystem.