NASA supercomputer reveals how Greenland ice melt boosts ocean life

A recent NASA-backed study reveals that the massive annual melt of Greenland’s ice sheet—losing about 270 billion tons of ice each year—is unexpectedly boosting ocean life by stimulating phytoplankton growth. Using the advanced ECCO-Darwin computer model developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT, scientists simulated how glacial meltwater interacts with ocean waters. The freshwater runoff from glaciers like Jakobshavn creates turbulent plumes that lift vital nutrients such as iron and nitrate from deep waters to the sunlit surface, enhancing phytoplankton growth by an estimated 15% to 40% during summer months. This process helps explain satellite observations of a 57% increase in Arctic phytoplankton between 1998 and 2018. Phytoplankton, though microscopic, play a crucial role in the marine food web by absorbing carbon dioxide and serving as the base food source for krill and other small animals, which in turn support larger marine species. However, scientists