Turbulence-driven nutrient supply sustains ice-algal growth in the Arctic: a modeling approach with CICE 6.1 coupled to Icepack 1.2, and with SIMBA 2.0

Castellani, Giulia; Campbell, Karley; Moreau, Sebastien; Duarte, Pedro

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-7939-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-7939-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-7939-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 16

Model description paper

|

26 Aug 2026

Model description paper |

| 26 Aug 2026

Turbulence-driven nutrient supply sustains ice-algal growth in the Arctic: a modeling approach with CICE 6.1 coupled to Icepack 1.2, and with SIMBA 2.0

Giulia Castellani, Karley Campbell, Sebastien Moreau, and Pedro Duarte

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-7939-2026-supplement

Data sets

Turbulence-Enhanced Nutrient Supply: A Key Driver of Algal Growth in the Arctic [Dataset] Giulia Castellani https://doi.org/10.21334/NPOLAR.2025.D8BD7FED

Model code and software

Icepack release with MOSAiC and Resolute data types and h_iceruf Pedro Duarte and Giulia Castellani https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17383699

Castellani2025_GMD_SIMBA2 Giuia Castellani https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17408324

CICE release with MOSAiC and Resolute data types and h_iceruf Pedro Duarte and Giulia Castellani https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17394666

Short summary

Nutrient exchange at the ocean-ice interface is a key process to supply nutrients and support sea-ice algal growth in polar regions. Such fluxes depend on the characteristics of the flow under the ice, whether of smooth or turbulent nature. We developed and implemented a parameterization that accounts for flow regime in two sea-ice biogeochemical models. By enhancing nutrient fluxes, turbulence supports higher primary production, resulting in more than double the biomass accumulation.