New Delhi (NVI): The Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, is seeing so-called snow algae turning the snow green.
Warming temperatures due to climate change are helping the formation and spread of “green snow” and it is becoming so prolific in places that it is even visible from space, according to a new research.
Notably, green snow algae are some of Antarctica’s smallest living organisms, delicate enough to examine by microscope. But when they grow together in clumps they become a rich, green stain on the surface of the white snow.
A large network of algal blooms have been cropping up every summer across the peninsula of Antarctica and the nearby islands that dot the Southern Ocean.
Furthermore, these blooms likely play an important role in the coastal ecosystem. Algae are typically a fundamental part of coastal food webs and help to sustain other larger forms of life.
These ‘snow algae’ are sometimes also known as ‘watermelon snow’, because they can produce shades of pink, red or green.
About two-thirds of the algal blooms studied occurred on the area’s islands, which have been even more affected by regional temperature rises than the Peninsula itself.
For the algae to thrive, the conditions need to be just right: water needs to be just above freezing point to give the snow the right degree of slushiness. And that’s happening with increasing frequency on the Peninsula during the Antarctic summer, from November to February.
