Ocean health can be broadly defined based on factors that affect
productivity, species diversity, and resilience
such as adaption to climate change.
Using
such an approach, ZSD observations could be used to explore changes in
ocean ecosystems to support fisheries and to anticipate critical transitions in fish
productivity.
By combination of this sea ice proxy IP25 with (biomarker) proxies for open - water phytoplankton
productivity such as brassicasterol, dinosterol or a specific tri-unsaturated HBI (HBI - III) 37,38,39,40,41, a more precise (semi-quantitative) reconstruction of present and past Arctic
Ocean sea ice conditions from marine sediments are now available (Supplementary Fig. 1; see Metho 6ds for some more details).