Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier
We have assessed the microbial ecology on the surface of Mittivakkat glacier in SE-Greenland during the exceptional high melting season in July 2012 when the so far most extreme melting rate for the Greenland Ice Sheet has been recorded. By employing a complementary and multi-disciplinary field samp...
Published in: | FEMS Microbiology Ecology |
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ftgfzpotsdam:oai:gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de:item_806916 2024-06-02T08:07:02+00:00 Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier Lutz, S. Anesio, A. Villar, S. Benning, L. 2014 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_806916 unknown info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1111/1574-6941.12351 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pissn/0168-6496 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/urn/<Go to ISI>://WOS:000340535200016 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_806916 FEMS Microbiology Ecology info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2014 ftgfzpotsdam https://doi.org/10.1111/1574-6941.12351 2024-05-07T04:20:38Z We have assessed the microbial ecology on the surface of Mittivakkat glacier in SE-Greenland during the exceptional high melting season in July 2012 when the so far most extreme melting rate for the Greenland Ice Sheet has been recorded. By employing a complementary and multi-disciplinary field sampling and analytical approach, we quantified the dramatic changes in the different microbial surface habitats (green snow, red snow, biofilms, grey ice, cryoconite holes). The observed clear change in dominant algal community and their rapidly changing cryo-organic adaptation inventory was linked to the high melting rate. The changes in carbon and nutrient fluxes between different microbial pools (from snow to ice, cryoconite holes and glacial forefronts) revealed that snow and ice algae dominate the net primary production at the onset of melting, and that they have the potential to support the cryoconite hole communities as carbon and nutrient sources. A large proportion of algal cells is retained on the glacial surface and temporal and spatial changes in pigmentation contribute to the darkening of the snow and ice surfaces. This implies that the fast, melt-induced algal growth has a high albedo reduction potential, and this may lead to a positive feedback speeding up melting processes. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland ice algae Ice Sheet GFZpublic (German Research Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam) Greenland FEMS Microbiology Ecology 89 2 402 414 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
GFZpublic (German Research Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam) |
op_collection_id |
ftgfzpotsdam |
language |
unknown |
description |
We have assessed the microbial ecology on the surface of Mittivakkat glacier in SE-Greenland during the exceptional high melting season in July 2012 when the so far most extreme melting rate for the Greenland Ice Sheet has been recorded. By employing a complementary and multi-disciplinary field sampling and analytical approach, we quantified the dramatic changes in the different microbial surface habitats (green snow, red snow, biofilms, grey ice, cryoconite holes). The observed clear change in dominant algal community and their rapidly changing cryo-organic adaptation inventory was linked to the high melting rate. The changes in carbon and nutrient fluxes between different microbial pools (from snow to ice, cryoconite holes and glacial forefronts) revealed that snow and ice algae dominate the net primary production at the onset of melting, and that they have the potential to support the cryoconite hole communities as carbon and nutrient sources. A large proportion of algal cells is retained on the glacial surface and temporal and spatial changes in pigmentation contribute to the darkening of the snow and ice surfaces. This implies that the fast, melt-induced algal growth has a high albedo reduction potential, and this may lead to a positive feedback speeding up melting processes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lutz, S. Anesio, A. Villar, S. Benning, L. |
spellingShingle |
Lutz, S. Anesio, A. Villar, S. Benning, L. Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier |
author_facet |
Lutz, S. Anesio, A. Villar, S. Benning, L. |
author_sort |
Lutz, S. |
title |
Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier |
title_short |
Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier |
title_full |
Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier |
title_fullStr |
Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier |
title_full_unstemmed |
Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier |
title_sort |
variations of algal communities cause darkening of a greenland glacier |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_806916 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland ice algae Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland ice algae Ice Sheet |
op_source |
FEMS Microbiology Ecology |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1111/1574-6941.12351 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pissn/0168-6496 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/urn/<Go to ISI>://WOS:000340535200016 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_806916 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/1574-6941.12351 |
container_title |
FEMS Microbiology Ecology |
container_volume |
89 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
402 |
op_container_end_page |
414 |
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1800752056750833664 |