Over the last decade, while Arctic sea ice has consistently decreased, Antarctic sea ice extent has recorded anomalous highs and record lows. The record lows observed in 2023 suggest a new reduced sea-ice state, with unknown impacts on phytoplankton phenology, bloom magnitude, and community composition. The variable sea ice cover over the last decade, and the resulting impacts on phytoplankton variability, may allow us to extrapolate and predict future change. Employing biogeochemical (BGC) Argo floats, satellite observations, re-analysis data products, and numerical modelling, we investigate the impact of anomalous sea ice on phytoplankton variability.