Ecology of Arctic Glaciers

• Main Authors: Anesio, Alexandre Magno, Laybourn-Parry, Johanna
• Other Authors: Thomas, D.N.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2021
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; Antarc*; ice algae; polar desert
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/ecology-of-arctic-glaciers(67f75c54-8f8a-4947-814e-7e44f217fa79).html; https://www.wiley.com/en-dk/Arctic+Ecology-p-9781118846544

The glacial environment provides a range of aquatic habitats that support biological activity. Broadly these can be categorized as the surface environments which change both in time and space from clean snow to different shades of green and red due to the presence of so‐called snow algae and to bare ice with the presence of varied quantities of organic and inorganic particles and so‐called ice algae. Glaciers and Ice Sheets are considered extreme environments and like other extreme environments, such as Antarctic lakes and high Arctic polar desert lakes, have truncated and microbially dominated food webs. This chapter presents an illustration that explains the main habitats that are ecologically and biologically relevant in glaciers. Food webs in cryoconite holes are relatively simple, but the flow of energy and matter through different trophic levels has yet to be elucidated. Where nitrogen is limited anthropogenic deposition is a subsidy that may enhance microbial production.