Publication Date
12-1-2025
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Communications Earth and Environment
Volume
6
Issue
1
DOI
10.1038/s43247-025-02599-1
Abstract
Seasonal phytoplankton blooms in Greenland’s coastal waters form the base of marine food webs and contribute to oceanic carbon uptake. In Qeqertarsuup Tunua, West Greenland, a secondary summertime bloom follows the Arctic spring bloom, enhancing annual primary productivity. Emerging evidence links this summer bloom to subglacial discharge from Sermeq Kujalleq, the most active glacier on the Greenland Ice Sheet. This discharge drives localized upwelling that may alleviate nutrient limitation in surface waters, yet this mechanism remains poorly quantified. Here, we employ a high-resolution biogeochemical model nested within a global state estimate to assess how discharge-driven upwelling influences primary productivity and carbon fluxes. We find that upwelling increases summer productivity by 15–40% in Qeqertarsuup Tunua, yet annual carbon dioxide uptake rises by only ~3% due to reduced solubility in plume-upwelled waters. These findings suggest that intensifying ice sheet melt may alter Greenland’s coastal productivity and carbon cycling under future climate scenarios.
Funding Number
NNH22ZDA001N-PO
Funding Sponsor
Ames Research Center
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Department
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Recommended Citation
Michael Wood, Dustin Carroll, Ian Fenty, Clément Bertin, Basil Darby, Stephanie Dutkiewicz, Mark Hopwood, Ala Khazendar, Lorenz Meire, Hilde Oliver, Tara Parker, and Josh Willis. "Increased melt from Greenland’s most active glacier fuels enhanced coastal productivity" Communications Earth and Environment (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02599-1
