This dataset comprises of geochemical, mineralogical and microbiological analyses of material collected on the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2016 and 2017. Stream water, melted ice and snow samples were collected and analysed for carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, cation and anion concentrations, pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), mineral phase and class abundances and Rare Earth Elements (REE). Microbial community composition was also analysed. In addition, the results of a nutrient incubation experiment are also presented.The data were collected as part of a project investigating drivers of glacial ice algal growth on the Greenland Ice Sheet. We acknowledge funding from UK Natural Environment Research Council Consortium Grant, Black and Bloom (NE/M020770/1, NE/M021025/1 and NE/S001670/1). LGB and SL acknowledge funding from the German Helmholtz Recruiting Initiative (award number: I-044-16-01). LGB, AMA, and MT were also supported through an ERC Synergy Grant (''Deep Purple'' grant # 856416) from the European Research Council (ERC)

This dataset consists of 75 destructive ice surface samples for which glacier algae cell counts were undertaken. The sample locations were distributed randomly over a 250 X 250 m area. Funding was provided by the NERC standard grant NE/M021025/1.

The abundance, photophysiology, pigmentation, bio-optical properties, cellular energy balance and instantaneous radiative forcing of glacier algal assemblages from the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) are quantified throughout the 2016 ablation season. The effects of assemblages on ice surface albedo are further derived using a newly developed model of glacier algal blooms for the GrIS, radiative transfer modelling using BioSNICAR-GO, and comparisons to MODIS broadband albedo observations over the same season. Data represent a composite of in-situ observations, in-situ incubations studies, laboratory analyses, modelling and remote sensing. All in -situ work was performed at site S6 of the K-Transect in the southwestern GrIS ablation zone as part of the Black and Bloom project. Funding was provided by the NERC ''Black and Bloom'' grant NE/M021025/1 and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 675546.