Surface darkening by abundant and diverse algae on an Antarctic ice cap

Alex Innes Thomson (), Andrew Gray (), Claudia Colesie, Naomi Thomas, Hannah Moulton, Peter Convey, Alison G. Smith, Peter Fretwell, Lloyd Peck and Matthew P. Davey ()
Additional contact information
Alex Innes Thomson: Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)
Andrew Gray: University of Edinburgh
Claudia Colesie: University of Edinburgh
Naomi Thomas: Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)
Hannah Moulton: Natural Environment Research Council
Peter Convey: Natural Environment Research Council
Alison G. Smith: University of Cambridge
Peter Fretwell: Natural Environment Research Council
Lloyd Peck: Natural Environment Research Council
Matthew P. Davey: Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Algal blooms play important roles in physical and biological processes on glacial surfaces. Despite this, their occurrence and impacts within an Antarctic context remain understudied. Here, we present evidence of the large-scale presence, diversity and bioalbedo effects of algal blooms on Antarctic ice cap systems based on fieldwork conducted on Robert Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica). Algal blooms are observed covering up to 2.7 km2 (~20%) of the measured area of the Robert Island ice cap, with cell densities of up to 1.4 × 106 cells ml−1. Spectral characterisation reveal that these blooms increase melting of the ice cap surface, contributing up to 2.4% of total melt under the observed conditions. Blooms are composed of typical cryoflora taxa, dominated by co-occurring Chlorophyceae, Trebouxiophyceae, and Ancylonema. However, morphological variation and genetic diversity in Ancylonema highlight the influence of regional endemism and point to a large and under-characterised diversity in Antarctic cryoflora.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57725-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-57725-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57725-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().