There is a gay man on the US border with Canada Glacier National Park (Glacier National Park), which has 130 lakes and dozens of icy high snowpacks. In 10 years, he will lose them all, judging by the forecasts of scientists.
Scientists have noticed that global warming in this park has been especially severe. The cover will soon completely disappear, the drought will increase, and all this is accompanied by an unusual phenomenon.
For ten years is delayed, which largely plays a role in warming pink snow that destroys itselfat the same time infecting the remains of untouched snowdrifts.
Scientists are investigating the causes of its spread in order to prevent an unexpected catastrophe. Until they succeed.
But worst of all, the snow is bleeding all over the world, from Greenland to Siberia.
About what Aristotle knew, but everyone thought about minerals
In 2030, the entire Montana National Park will lose its ice
Creepy color transformation is called one of the reasons
From 4040 km² Glacier Park in Montana 37 km² chameleon snow cover. If you pass by, drive or make a snowball, the trail or ball turns pink, sometimes even ruby.
Scientists have explored the park cover to find possible uses for this natural phenomenon and to understand why it is on the increase.
The first mention of exceptional phenomena is in Aristotle’s Book of Animals (line 105), but major publications began to appear during the years of geographical research at the beginning of the 19th century. meet only in 1818.
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Then red snow was found in Greenland, which at first was mistaken for bloody, and then they decided that the matter was in minerals, oxidation, metal deposits or algae.
A century and a half later, the last theory was confirmed. The delay in propagation due to the fact that the pink material quickly changed shape and “died” does not allow scientists to understand the causes without the exact tools of our time.
In 1968 Chlamydomonas snowy and studied the unexpected behavior of algae.
It turns out that because of the plants, the snow “blooms”.
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Chlamydomonas snowball
Snow cover in Montana
Chlamydomonas snowy refers to a group of green (yes) algae that live in high nappes and polar regions around the world. In winter, the plant is in stasis, but with warming it begins to multiply and “show” its color.
In this habitat they are accounted for. In Russian the cover is called from the funny “watermelon snow” to the sinister “blood of glaciers” depending on the saturation of the color.
In 2019, such colors are scattered. A more detailed molecular analysis helped to identify the sisters of Chlamydomonas snow from the group that, according to a similar definition of snow coloration in different regions. The red tint forms a new type of green algae under the not yet translated into Russian Sanguina nivaloidesbut I know sanguine aurantia.
The saturation between textures depends on the amount of sensation of the pigment. astaxanthin. Due to it, not only mountain snow becomes red, but also flamingo feathers, salmon and trout meat, shrimp and plankton shells.
Unfortunately, such an innocent thing as the color of snow algae becomes especially sought after against their own habitat.
Ice algae eat snow too fast
The strongest color is formed under a layer of new ice. height bright coloring from steps. When the ice melts, it turns into creepy red puddles.
Chlamydomonas is snowy and similar to its species, which reproduce at temperatures from 0ºC to 25ºC at the expense of, presumably, nitrogen and phosphorus.
In summer, when the algae enter the flowering phase, they begin to darken. This is necessary in order for the zygotes to be captured and linger among the participants in the heat flow.
this phenomenon creates an unpleasant loop. Bright fresh snow has always been Earth’s most natural reflective surface. And then it gets dark due to algae blooms, gets too much heat and starts to melt. Reproduction is increasing, so is melting, and habitat is spreading.
Glacier National Park. Montana, USA
On the left, the reflectivity of snow saturated with algae is measured, and the degree of heat absorption on the color of the snowdrift is directly measured.
Required two-layer snow pattern. It can be seen that the new layer is still white, and the surface layer is gradually turning pink with the highest degree. There are all stages of development necessary for research
At the very beginning, it was not just about discovering Glacier Park. There, researchers have to play distillation with algae, because in the active growth phase, necessary for experiments, it is difficult to find.
By this point, while scientists are picking them up, one rose water or adult chlamydomonas belongs to the breeding site, which is already useless to test.
But recently luck has smiled. The beautiful double layer of snow helps gather the necessary organisms, and now scientists are better than capturing conditions that enhance a favorable environment for the growth of beautiful but dangerous algae.
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When estimating melting at the rate at which snowpacks are melting, they don’t take into account the unexpected factor of algae. He was simply ignored until he began to attract too much attention. One study says that 13% of the melted Greenland ice sheet over the past year was caused by chlamydomonas, another that algae is responsible for 17% of snowmelt in Alaska – 21% more than a year ago.
But these are experiments on extensive flat fires. Now scientists are struggling to understand the situation in the mountains. Snow pink algae are kept at altitudes up to space and a half kilometers, and with active melting, their immature “offspring” falls off faster, actively spreading their distribution. And snow removal.
For example, the western United States is highly dependent on clean water coming from glaciers. The ability to predict its amount every year is necessary for the current work on the site of the housing and communal services.
In Russia, this danger is not so obvious, although snow and we have regions where it blooms. In Khakassia, he is already in 2015.
Using the fact that pink algae are distributed throughout the polar territory, their critical study predicts the effect of global warming.
After all, as soon as the temperature rises to the remaining glaciers, bewitching, but the catastrophic process can no longer be stopped. But the transience of the snow cover for the settlement was at least ready for a new challenge in terms of danger to them.
Source: Iphones RU
