Modeling of the Coupled Sea Ice-Ocean Ecosystem in the Pan-Arctic Ocean

The sea ice and ocean ecosystem are equally important and tightly coupled habitats in the Arctic Ocean, which together provide year-round supports for the abundant fish, marine mammals and sea birds. Modeling studies on this coupled system have just started recently. We present a 3-D ice-ocean-ecosystem coupled with POP-CICE (Parallel Ocean Program-Los Alamos Sea Ice Model), the ocean and ice components of the NCAR-CCSM. The preliminary model results revealed the seasonal progression of primary production in the sea ice and ocean. Ice edge phytoplankton blooms are shown in the Bering Sea and Labrador Sea in April to May. The sea ice algal production starts in March from south and gradually advances into the north as the light intensity increases. The ice algal biomass is low during ice-melting season from June to September as the ice algae being flushed out of the ice bottom habitat. The spatial distribution of the production in the Arctic Ocean are controlled by factors including the available light at the bottom of different ice categories, ice growth and melt rates, and nutrients in the ocean mixed layer. Model validation with various physical, biological observations are in the progress.