Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5780581 | Polar Science | 2016 | 12 Pages |
Abstract
Snow and ice algal communities were investigated on four glaciers in the Suntar-Khayata Mountain Range in eastern Siberia in Russia over three melting seasons from 2012 to 2014. Two taxa of green algae and five taxa of cyanobacteria were observed on the glaciers. The algal community was dominated by green algae: Ancylonema nordenskioldii in the lower bare ice area and Chloromonas sp. in the upper snow area. The total algal bio-volume showed altitudinal variation, ranging from 0.03 to 4.0Â mLÂ mâ2, and was greatest in the middle of the glaciers. The altitudinal variations in the algal community were similar on all studied glaciers, suggesting that they are typical in this region. Observations over the three years revealed that there was no significant change in the community structure, but a significant change in the total biomass. Since the mean summer air temperature was significantly higher in 2012 when algal biomass was greater, the difference in algal biomass among the years is probably due to the duration of surface melting. The community structure on the studied glaciers is similar to those on glaciers in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Earth and Planetary Sciences (General)
Authors
Sota Tanaka, Nozomu Takeuchi, Masaya Miyairi, Yuta Fujisawa, Tsutomu Kadota, Tatsuo Shirakawa, Ryo Kusaka, Shuhei Takahashi, Hiroyuki Enomoto, Tetsuo Ohata, Hironori Yabuki, Keiko Konya, Alexander Fedorov, Pavel Konstantinov,