Watermelon snow, also known as glacial blood, is caused by algae that turns the snow a startling shade of red.
The algae blooms in summer, forming on the snowfields that linger on glaciers, frozen lakes, rugged peaks and icy valleys in the upper reaches of mountain terrain.
The darker the snow, the faster it melts — and new research sheds light on the threat snow algae poses to shrinking glaciers across northwestern North America.
Source and more:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/algae-watermelon-snow-mountain-glacier-research-1.7074420
As the glaciers of the world thaw, one colorful group of microorganisms is thriving.
Excerpt from this story from The New Yorker:
Every spring, in alpine regions around the world, one of Earth’s tiniest migrations takes place. The migrants are single-celled green algae; they are kin to seaweed, but instead of living in the sea they live in snow. (Snow weed, maybe?) They spend the winter deep in the snowpack, atop last summer’s snow, as dormant cysts. In the spring, they wake and swim up through the trickle of snowmelt to the surface, dividing and photosynthesizing as they go. Then, at the top, they turn red. This creates what scientists call pink snow or watermelon snow—drifts and glaciers that look like Slush Puppies and eventually reduce to rivulets of crimson.
The color comes from astaxanthin, a molecular cousin of the chemical that makes carrots orange. The algae produce it seemingly as a sunscreen; it absorbs UV light, warming the organisms, and, critically, melting the surrounding snow. “The melting helps them a lot,” Roman Dial, a biologist at Alaska Pacific University, told me recently. “The surface of a snowfield can be a very dry place; the liquid water drains away. And life just can’t use frozen water. It’s like if you were out camping and your water bottle was frozen, you’d be thirsty until it melted.”
Watermelon snow is a perfectly natural phenomenon, but in an age of disappearing glaciers it is also problematic. Last year, scientists discovered that the algae had reduced the amount of sunlight reflected by some glaciers in Scandinavia—and increased the amount of sunlight absorbed—by thirteen per cent. The result, as Dial and his colleagues demonstrated in this month’s issue of Nature Geoscience, is faster melting. As in other parts of the warming planet—particularly the Arctic, where scientists fear that thawing permafrost may be triggering a climatic feedback loop—the effect is likely self-perpetuating. Ice sheets are already being darkened by dust, soot, and ash, which hasten melting and add nutrients on which algae can flourish. As the organisms proliferate, they melt even more snow, which allows them to proliferate again. “It spreads more rapidly than people realize, once it gets established,” Dial said.
“Study of Red Snow Brings No Solution,” Toronto Globe. June 10, 1931. Page 02.
----
Odd Phenomenon on Forbidden Plateau Confirmed - One Theory Exploded
----
(Canadian Press Despatch.)
Victoria, B.C., June 9. - Close investigation of the ‘red snow’ of the Forbidden Plateau of Vancouver Island, subject of considerable discussion among scientists, has been made by W. J. Oliver, Calgary cameraman; Clinton S. Woods, first white man to blaze a trail into the plateau, and Harold Husband of Victoria. The trio has just returned from an eventful trip into the impressive Stathcona Park area.
The theory, often advanced, that the color is only given to it when viewed from a distance by red alpine flowers pressing their way through the white blanket was exploded. In wide veins, where the snow is six feet deep, it is decidedly red in color, and no flowers poke their way through to color it, the party reports. They stood in the red snow, picked it up and examined it. Their examination threw no light on the mystery.
Entry 35: I was worried that the serum got mixed with some other chemicals, causing the Aegagropila linnaei’s panophobia and the Dionaea muscipula’s social anxiety, so I had to do some more experiments. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case. the Chlamydomonas nivalis doesn’t show any of those symptoms. The venus Fly Trap has seemed to take a liking to the Watermelon snow, and my assistant keeps referring to them as friends. Testing is still going on.
Snowy’s a good friend. She’s much more of an extrovert than me and has actually helped me with my shyness. Sure, the man who created us gave her a bit of a strange name, but I still like her. She’s really nice and helpful and...I’m rambling, aren’t I?
Pink snow can be found in many areas throughout the world. It is called watermelon snow because it smells and tastes like watermelon. The snow has a pink hue due to a high level of Chlamydomonasnivalisalgae, which blooms under certain temperatures and turns the snow pink due to a red pigment called astaxanthin. The pink snow is known to have laxative properties, plus bacteria could contaminate it, so I would not suggest eating it. The first mentions of pink snow are in the writings of Aristotle.
