James Frystak is not new to citizen science. As a professional expedition photographer and videographer, he spent ten days inside the fumarole ice-caves of an episodically active volcano where he assisted scientists studying the climate, mapping the caves, and collecting samples in a search for life in extremely harsh conditions.

Compared to life in an ice cave filled with steaming noxious gases, life on the snow doesn’t seem so extreme!

James heard about the B.C. Snow Algae project last summer after he’d seen pink snow on Wedge Mountain. Fortunately for us, he caught some gorgeous footage of acres of pink snow blooming in some pretty spectacular mountain scenery. James notes that the snow was hard packed and overlay a glacier, leading us to wonder, yet again, how did the algae get there? How do snow algae colonize each season’s snow?

Deep gratitude to James for producing a beautiful video ode to the pink snow of Wedge Mountain. Enjoy!

You can see more photography and videos by James on his website, James Frystak Studio.

Follow the BC Snow Algae Project at Snow Algae Reports.

6. Stunning video of pink snow on Wedge Mountain was originally published in Snow Algae Reports on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Our primary goal for the 2017 field season is to learn when and where algae bloom in the mountains of southwestern British Columbia. We can only do this with the help of citizen scientists who send us reports of their sightings of green/orange/pink/red snow. We will not be collecting physical samples this year, although that aspect of the project will return in 2018. This year we hope to receive a large number of reports spanning the whole season, including multiple reports from some locations. Observations by citizen-scientists are critical as we address basic questions such as: Are blooms are green before they turn red (see previous post on this blog)? How long do blooms last? Do they track to higher elevations as the season progresses? Observations by citizen scientists will provide the foundation for hypotheses and future experiments designed to determine why coloured snow appears in some locations and not others and how algae colonize the snow. As we head into March, keep your eye out for coloured snow, particularly at lower elevations.

Specifically, the data we hope to collect from backcountry adventurers (citizen-scientists) in 2017 is the following:

1. Photographs of the site: close-ups as well as wider perspectives showing the setting. Comparable shots of nearby white snow are also helpful.

2. An estimate of the size of area covered by coloured snow (e.g. “one patch the size of a parking spot with several smaller patches nearby.”)

3. GPS coordinates, elevation and name of location.

4. Date

5. Weather conditions (overcast? sunny? raining? snowing?). We are interested in conditions at the time of sighting as well as the few days preceding the sighting.

6. Site characteristics. (Can you tell if the snow is on rocks or soil or ice? Is there a forest canopy overhead or nearby? Is the snow dirty? Is there a fresh water source nearby?)

7. Snow conditions. (Soggy and wet? Dry and fluffy?)

8. An estimate of snow depth.

9. How many hours did you spend moving through the backcountry on this trip?

10. How many sightings of coloured snow did you make on this trip?

Please send observations, questions & suggestions to: bcsnowalgae@gmail.com

Finally, please help us spread the word by sharing with your friends and posting about the BC Snow Algae Project on your favourite backcountry board. Thank you! And happy trekking.

Follow the BC Snow Algae Project at Snow Algae Reports.

5. Backcountry enthusiasts invited to join the BC Snow Algae Project was originally published in Snow Algae Reports on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Over the next few weeks spring will begin its slow creep up the mountains, arriving in the high alpine by late summer. The arrival of spring to an alpine region can be marked by the appearance of coloured snow, sometimes bright red ‘watermelon snow’, other times a more subtle pink, orange or green tinge that is easy to miss.

Many different things, including mineral deposits and animal waste can colour snow. One of the most striking is Penguin poo, coloured by the abundant carotenoids in the birds’ krill diet. Blooms of snow algae are the predominant cause of coloured snow in our local mountains. But what exactly is a bloom of snow algae?

Snow algae are unicellular organisms. When conditions are good (liquid water, sunlight and nutrients) the individual cells grow in volume until big enough to divide into two cells. We don’t yet know how fast snow algae grow and divide, but their temperate cousins divide up to four times in a day. One cell becomes two, two become four, four eight and eight sixteen. Thus in a single day, the population grows sixteen-fold. After four days of optimal growth, one cell has become 65,536 cells. It is easy to understand how a pond can turn green after a few warm days. But what is happening on the snow?

One of the enigmas of snow algae is that both in the lab and in field samples, we and others have only managed to catch green cells dividing. Do green cells proliferate and then turn red after the population has exploded? Or do red cells divide so quickly that they are less likely to be caught in the act of division? Or are the red cells undergoing a unique process of division that happens underneath their shield of fatty red pigment? Are the green cells and red cells different stages of the same species, or are they different species? While we are addressing some of these questions in the lab, we are keen to see whether our crack team of citizen scientists can find any blooms of green snow algae as they follow spring up the mountains in the upcoming backcountry season.

Follow the BC Snow Algae Project at Snow Algae Reports.

4. The hunt for green snow: chasing the mystery of how snow algae bloom was originally published in Snow Algae Reports on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

During the 2016 field season we received over 50 reports of pink snow sightings in the backcountry of southwestern B.C. Some of these backcountry travellers submitted photos with their reports and a few brought us samples of the snow. First the sites, then the cells.

Sometimes the snow is only faintly pink. Other times, it is intensely red, as shown in the photo to the left. This “watermelon snow” is not only the colour of watermelon, but can also smell like watermelon.

How do algae colonize the snow every spring? Do they swim up from underlying substrate? Are they deposited by the wind? Do they fall as the nuclei of snow crystals? What conditions trigger the bloom? There may be many different answers to these questions.

Looking at samples of pink snow under the microscope revealed another level of beauty and raised many more questions.

From samples like those shown above, we have been able to isolate individual cells and encourage them to divide to generate a lab strain that we call “an isolate.” In a future post, I will show pictures of some of our new isolates of local snow algae and I will write about what we hope to learn from these cultures.

The images of field samples reveal the presence of not only algae, but also fungi, ciliates, and bacteria. It is likely that archaea and viruses are also present. How to these communities of diverse organisms work together to survive and thrive on snow and ice?

Follow the BC Snow Algae project at Snow Algae Reports.

3. Watermelon snow in the field and under the microscope was originally published in Snow Algae Reports on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Shortly after that meeting, two of my new colleagues from SAM1, Steffie Lutz and Liane Benning, published an exciting paper in Nature Communications titled, “The biogeography of red snow microbiomes and their role in melting arctic glaciers.” In this paper, Steffie, Liane and their co-workers provided estimates of the effects of dirty, green and red snow on albedo, a measure of the amount of energy from the sun that is absorbed rather than reflected. In other words, it was the first step in quantifying the effects of snow algae as a positive feed-back loop for climate change-induced melting of Arctic ice.

One of my tweets about the Lutz et al. paper caught the attention of a local newspaper reporter, Brent Richter. Brent’s article in the North Shore News was a fortuitous launch of our plan-as-you-go 2016 field season. As we worked to define our research goals, research fellow Laura Hilton and I scrambled to facilitate the involvement of backcountry enthusiasts interested in joining our new quest to understand the alpine snow algae of B.C.

We received reports of pink snow sightings from over 50 locations in the region. Coordinates provided by a report from nearby Hollyburn Mountain guided Laura & I to hike in and collect samples. We also prepared small lightweight field kits for a handful of generous explorers who then brought us samples from farther afield.

By the end of the season, we had field samples from a dozen locations and successfully cultured algae from Hollyburn Mountain, Flora Peak, West Lion, Mt Face, Mt. Locomotive, Slalok Summit and Goat Ridge.

Future posts in this series will bring you photos from the field, microscopic images of the field samples and cultured algae from the 2016 season, along with a few words on what we hope to learn about these intriguing algae. (Also coming soon is a post on how to join our 2017 field season).

Follow the B.C. Snow Algae Project at Snow Algae Reports.

2. Jumping in the deep end: Launch of the 2016 field season was originally published in Snow Algae Reports on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After more than 20 years studying the molecular biology of cell motility, I’ve refocussed my research program. While I continue to be in awe of the molecular machines of life, I’ve become wholly distracted by the urgency of climate change.

I’ve joined a handful of researchers from around the world working to understand snow algae — how they colonize and thrive on Arctic, Antarctic and alpine snow and ice. My group in Vancouver, Canada will focus on our local alpine regions, drawing on a passionate community of backcountry enthusiasts who work with us as citizen scientists.

Not only do the algae bloom in some spectacular locations, the cells themselves are gorgeous. Low temperature constrains the biochemistry of photosynthesis creating risk of oxidative damage. One of the most dramatic adaptations of the cryophilic algae is production of secondary carotenoid that serves as antioxidant, energy sink and light shield. Thus, green algae on snow are often red. Red snow reflects less solar radiation than white snow, producing an increase in local temperature and a positive feedback loop of melting and algal growth. As the extent and seasonal duration of snow and ice coverage diminishes with global warming, there are indications of algal blooms on an increasing fraction of remaining snowfields.

This new publication will provide updates on our research and adventures. There will be science, art and activism.

Follow us at Snow Algae Reports.

1. Introducing Snow Algae Reports was originally published in Snow Algae Reports on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.