Unravelling the Role of marine biopolymers in cloud formation in the High Arctic

The relentless increase in summer ice melt will likely amplify Arctic warming.

But could the same conditions also spur the activity of marine microbiota, increase cloudiness, and counteract the melting?To answer this question, it is critical to know, e.g., which biomolecules are in the sea-ice diatom exudates that contribute to cloud nucleation and understand the difference between the ice crystal and cloud drop-forming constituents.To resolve these obvious cross-disciplinary challenges, we seek financial support to integrate unique samples collected during the Oden cruise to the North Pole in 2018 with post-laboratory determinations and simulations: We will implement novel genomic analyses of the Arctic habitat to allow conclusions on the genetic fingerprint and thereby link the presence of marine polymer gels (mixtures of polysaccharides, proteins, and amino acids) in aerosol and clouds to the oceanic biota.Next, mass spectrometry and a cutting-edge gas phase electrophoretic mobility analyzer will be developed to characterize the cloud nucleating biomolecules.To knit our highly interdisciplinary project together, we will explore studies of the surface composition of aqueous solutions using liquid-jet photoelectron spectroscopy in combination with molecular simulations at the few-atomic scale to the cloud-forming properties of nanometer-sized gels.If successful, a fundamental understanding of the molecular level of the controls of high Arctic clouds will be gained.