Algae that tinge snow red are to blame for about a sixth of the snowmelt at an Alaskan ice field Microbes are pushing glacial snow into the red. An alga species that grows on glaciers gives the ...

However, especially where the glaciers are not covered in snow and the bare ice is exposed, they sometimes have dark patches. These are microscopic algae that grow on the ice and darken its surface.

The algae, which consist of individual cells of a diatom, Melosira arctica, normally cling to the underside of the ice in long, filamentous threads, but break free and sink to the bottom as ice thins ...

Each year, as spring arrives in the Arctic, the sun's warmth triggers a transformation on the Greenland ice sheet. Snow melts, and patches of brownish algae bloom on the ice surface. These microscopic ...

That may harm algae-eating zooplankton and the cod that ... As it happened, two weeks after my walk with Spreen, the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado announced that Arctic sea ice ...

While observing watermelon snow in the wild doesn't pose a threat to humans, these algae blooms contribute to ice melt, sea level rise, flooding, and global climate change. According to experts at ...

Snow and ice fell on the high mountains ... In the oceans, a new type of large brown algae, called kelp, latched onto rocks and corals in cool shallow waters, establishing a new habitat favored ...