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YOUR DAILY DOSE OF SCIENCE 3

RED SNOW

PHENOMENA

Red snow is a unique phenomenon Researchers from Institute of Industrial Science, The
caused by blooms of red algae that University of Tokyo find that the occurrence of red snow is
closely tied to the length of the snow melt season and new
live on the surface of snow. snowfall events. Credit: Institute of Industrial Science, The
University of Tokyo

Researchers from Japan on the surface of snow and algal blooms occur,” says the occurrence of algal “We also know that new
have developed a model ice. The algae appear in lead author of the study blooms, such as snowfall snowfall during the melting
to predict the occurrence the spring on thawing snow Yukihiko Onuma. The and daylight length. When season can cover the al-
of red snow events. In a surfaces and can speed up cryosphere, which includes they tested the new model gae and, in the simulation,
recent study published in snow melt as they darken all the frozen places on using real-world data from we found that the timing of
the Journal of Geophysical the snow surface. The dark Earth, is dwindling as global fifteen sites around the blooms was closely tied to
Research: Biogeosciences, surface becomes warmer temperatures rise. “Our aim world, they found it per- how long the snow cover
researchers from Insti- and snow melts faster. The with this research was to formed well. persisted and the timing
tute of Industrial Science. abundance of snow algae try and predict the location of fresh snowfall during the
The University of Tokyo is influenced by factors and timing of red snow The team then incorpo- season.”
found that red snow algae such as the snow condi- events and their effects on rated the snow algae
blooms are associated tions, like snow depth and global snow cover.” model into a land surface Given that snow cover is
with the duration of snow nutrient availability, as well model to create a global decreasing globally, this
melt and the timing of new as local meteorological The researchers took a snow algae simulation. new model is a valuable
snowfall. conditions. previously developed “The simulation predicted tool for predicting future
simple snow algae model algal blooms in places snow algae blooms and
Red algae are photosyn- “It’s important to under- and incorporated addi- where they have previously their effects on this impor-
thetic microbes that live stand why and when these tional factors that influence occurred,” explains Onuma. tant global habitat.