geosciences Article Strategies for the Simulation of Sea Ice Organic Chemistry: Arctic Tests and Development Scott Elliott 1,*, Nicole Jeffery 1, Elizabeth Hunke 1, Clara Deal 2, Meibing Jin 2 ID , Shanlin Wang 1, Emma Elliott Smith 3 and Samantha Oestreicher 4 1 Climate Ocean Sea Ice Modeling (COSIM), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA;
[email protected] (N.J.);
[email protected] (E.H.);
[email protected] (S.W.) 2 International Arctic Research Center and University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA;
[email protected] (C.D.),
[email protected] (M.J.) 3 Biology Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA;
[email protected] 4 Applied Mathematics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-505-606-0118 Received: 11 April 2017; Accepted: 21 June 2017; Published: 14 July 2017 Abstract: A numerical mechanism connecting ice algal ecodynamics with the buildup of organic macromolecules is tested within modeled pan-Arctic brine channels. The simulations take place offline in a reduced representation of sea ice geochemistry. Physical driver quantities derive from the global sea ice code CICE, including snow cover, thickness and internal temperature. The framework is averaged over ten boreal biogeographic zones. Computed nutrient-light-salt limited algal growth supports grazing, mortality and carbon flow. Vertical transport is diffusive but responds to pore structure. Simulated bottom layer chlorophyll maxima are reasonable, though delayed by about a month relative to observations due to uncertainties in snow variability. Upper level biota arise intermittently during flooding events.