Publication Date
5-28-2023
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
50
Issue
10
DOI
10.1029/2022GL102689
Abstract
Subglacial discharge emerging from the base of Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers drives upwelling of nutrient-rich bottom waters to the euphotic zone, which can fuel nitrate-limited phytoplankton growth. Here, we use buoyant plume theory to quantify this subglacial discharge-driven nutrient supply on a pan-Greenland scale. The modeled nitrate fluxes were concentrated in a few critical systems, with half of the total modeled nitrate flux anomaly occurring at just 14% of marine-terminating glaciers. Increasing subglacial discharge fluxes results in elevated nitrate fluxes, with the largest flux occurring at Jakobshavn Isbræ in Disko Bay, where subglacial discharge is largest. Subglacial discharge and nitrate flux anomaly also account for significant temporal variability in summer satellite chlorophyll a (Chl) within 50 km of Greenland's coast, particularly in some regions in central west and northwest Greenland.
Funding Number
OCE‐2212654
Funding Sponsor
National Science Foundation
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Recommended Citation
Hilde Oliver, Donald Slater, Dustin Carroll, Michael Wood, Mathieu Morlighem, and Mark J. Hopwood. "Greenland Subglacial Discharge as a Driver of Hotspots of Increasing Coastal Chlorophyll Since the Early 2000s" Geophysical Research Letters (2023). https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL102689
