I live for all things pink, and there is something beautiful about pink icy ice. However, the dusty pink layer on the Presena Glacier in the Italian Alps is more sinister than it sounds. Algae have dyEd the snow of a strange color. The otherworldly aspect could end up accelerating the melting of snow and glaciers in the fragile mountain region.
Pink snow is often a spring and summer phenomenon, requiring the right amount of light, heat, and water to grow. Usually, the algae are dormant while under snow and ice, but once the thaw season arrives, the normally dazzling landscape bursts with color.
Biagio Di Mauro, a researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy, told Earther in an email that the bloom on the Presena glacier is an example of Chlamydomonas nivalis, A type of algae found in the Alps and in the polar regions from Greenland to Antarctica. It is more commonly known as watermelon snow, and it could be having an impact on thawing.
This is because the whiter the snow is, the more effective it is at getting the sun’s rays back into space, keeping things cool. Global warming is already causing enough damage to the polar and mountainous regions without the appearance of algae and making matters worse. A study published last year showed that up to half of the glaciers in the Alps could disappear this century as the temperature increases. While there has been quite a bit of investigation As for the amount of snow that algal blooms actually cause, more is needed to delve into its full impacts on snow and ice, as well as whether blooms are more likely to occur as the planet warms up.
“It is expected that less solid precipitation during the winter and higher air temperatures during the spring and summer will favor the formation of snow algae and glaciers,” Di Mauro said, noting that there is “little information on this aspect”.
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The watermelon snow bloom of the Presena Glacier is hardly alone this year. Just a few weeks ago, Alaska saw some pink snow In March, Ukrainian researchers on the island of Galindez off North Antarctica witnessed a similar event, though the ice was definitely redder and bloodier. Research published earlier this year also documented strange green algae flowers Elsewhere on the continent, though scientists are still understanding how climate change can affect the frequency and location of these algal blooms.
Algae are also not the only problem for snow and ice. Last year, New Zealand’s glaciers turned pink as a result of smoke from forest fires in neighboring Australia. Ash plays a role similar to that of algae, as it absorbs more heat and melts more ice and snow.
Some scientists have argument that this mechanism needs to be added to climate models so that we can have a clearer understanding of how all these pink and red algae could drive global warming in the future. This pink snow may be a sight to admire, but it is not doing Earth good.
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