Researchers are now able to determine the amounts of gel produced from sea ice microbes, based on the physical nature of ice and the amount of microbiology present.
This will enable scientists to establish the significance of microbe gels to the Arctic and Antarctic.
Algae and bacteria living within pack ice secrete a gel which affects the transportation of carbon to the sea floor.
The gels promote the clumping together of cells which are released from ice after it melts.
These sticky masses then fall more rapidly to the sea floor, taking carbon out of surface waters.
Large amounts of this gel influences the structure of ice, transportation of carbon to the sea floor and even the weather.
Read more at Aarhus University