Microbes flourish under Arctic sea ice

Scientists shocked to find phytoplankton thriving under frozen surface

Secret gardens may hide beneath floating slabs of ice in the Arctic. A pea soup of plantlike plankton has been uncovered that extends more than 100 kilometers under ice off Alaska’s coast.

PLANKTON HAZE A camera lowered beneath an ice slab off Alaska’s coast spotted this thick green haze of phytoplankton thriving in waters thought to be inhospitable to the microorganisms.