To date, little is known about the microorganisms in Alaska's snow and ice fields. This red snow is likely due to organisms from the Chlainydomonas nwalis group that cause the red color of snowfields around the world. In the summer of 1936 I was able to study the organisms of the snow and ice fields in Alaska.
I have done research in the coastal mountain ranges and also inland areas of the Alaska Peninsula. I have collected snow and ice algae on the Alaskan Range, and on the interior Wrangell Mountains, on the Chugatch Mountains, and on the Coast Range. , as shown in the accompanying map (fig. i). It is highly desirable that this research be continued at a later date in the northern part of the territory, because conditions in Alaska are exceptionally favorable for the growth of organisms in snow and ice, and there is a lot of it. The developmental cycle of the snow-dwelling organisms is not precisely known, nor do we even know what role these organisms play.
However, a laboratory established at an altitude of 11,382 feet in the Jungfrau Pass, Switzerland, would be very useful for studying the cryo-vegetation, and if other laboratories in similar situations of extreme environmental conditions could be provided, such studies are done a lot. more profitable. Mount McKinley National Park: Head of the Savage River at an elevation of about 4,500 feet, July 21.
COAST RANGE
For 4 years I maintained my cultures of living material, but they were finally lost in October 1940 with the removal of the Franz Joseph University to Kolozsvar, so that now only the preserved material remains. These, in small glass tubes in 4 to 5 per cent formalin, are in duplicate, one set being in the possession of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the other in the department of general botany of the Franz Joseph University in Kolozsvar, Hungary. The development of phytoplankton of fresh water is influenced by the chemical and physical character of the water, and in the same way the comparable factors which may be called the cryo-environment of snow and ice act as the controlling factors in the development of the vegetation there. , which we can call the cryovegetation.
As we understand it today, the snow and ice-dwelling organisms, the cryobiota, live very close to the surface and so the changes that occur on the surface of the snow and ice fields are the ones that exert the main influence on these organisms. . It therefore becomes clear that the vegetation is influenced by the chemical nature of the rocks that form the surrounding mountain slopes. Changes in the pH of surface snow and ice affect the composition of the vegetation on its surface, as does the salt content.
Therefore, an attempt was made to obtain data to show the extent of the influence of this factor along with the other observations during the study of the cryoenvironments in Alaska. It can be clearly seen from table i that the plants in the Alaskan snowfields are mostly of the silicotrophic type, appearing as a vegetation of red or pink snow.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE CRYOBIONTS
Microorganisms appear on snow and ice which do not have this as their proper home, being transferred there from their normal
THE CRYOBIOTA OF ALASKA
Also in the samples were frustules of diatoms, hyphae and spores of fungi, phanerogam pollen and spores of cryptogams, fragments of various plants and large amounts of cryoconite. The samples also contain frustules of diat ©ms, hyphae and spores of fungi, spores of cryptogams and phanerogam pollen, fragments of various plants and large amounts of cryoconite. The samples also contained frustules of diatoms, spores of fungi, phanerogas pollen, fragments of various plants and a lot of cryoconite.
The samples also contained traces of fungi, fragments of various plants and cryoconite in very large quantities. The samples also contained frustules of diatoms, spores of fungi, phanerogam pollen, fragments of various plants and cryoconite. The presence of the different microorganisms depends on the environmental factors, and their optimal development on the dominant factors in the cryoenvironment, but transport of the spores by wind is necessary for the establishment of these plants (Pettersson 1940, p. yz)- .
RED SNOW
2.-i, Kilaaniydoomoonaasniivaalis, 2, Ismiizsoniyoonaas Abbotii, 3, Iskootiyeelaaniivaalis;4, Kilamiidootnonaasanguinea;5, Gloeocapsa Ralfsiana;6, Iskootiyeelaa antarktikaa; 7, Pleurococcus vulgaris /3 walitti hidhame; 8, pylli i Rafidoncmes irratti kan argamu; 9, 2020.
SNOW AND ICE ALGAE OF ALASKA — KOL 15
ICE BLOOM
ANNOTATED SYSTEMATIC LIST
ALGAE
CHLOROPHYCEAE
PROTOCOCCALES CHLAMYDOMONAS NIVALIS Wille
The orange-red color of the cell wall of the preserved material appears in plate 6. In another ordinary convex front has expanded wedge-shaped to the protruding point of the flagella (pi. The two sides of the bell-shaped shape are sometimes almost parallel, sometimes diverge significantly (pi.
The chromatophore is pot or bell-shaped, with starch and a large pyrenoid in the central part. When this envelope thickens, the cell dismisses its flagella and a resting state enters with an oval cell and radial ornamentation. The protoplast becomes nearly quadrangular (pi.. 8, 20), without any solid wall surrounding it, but connected with the envelope by thin strands of protoplasm.
In the same sample there were numerous spherical cells 8-12 ju, diam., which had escaped from. This microorganism was first described from Antarctic yellow snow by Fritsch (1912, p. 123), but has not, to my knowledge, been seen in the range.
CHAETOPHORALES
ZYGNEMATALES
In coastal glaciers it forms long filaments and occurs in large quantities, but in inland glaciers it forms short filaments and is rare because it is exclusively an ice organism (see p. 8). 4-6jLi diam., 1-2 diameters long, apices broadly rounded; single chloroplast with a pyrenoid; vacuolar fluid dark purple purple, sometimes quite dark brown. Zygospore is regular or irregular, quadrate or subspherical to subspherical, 16-20 fi in diameter, dark brown with very thick wall (pi.
When the cells are twice as long as they are wide, they divide, starting with the division of the chloroplast and pyrenoid, then the nucleus, and only then does a new wall appear between the cells (pi. Berggrenil (Wittr.) Lagerh.), but it differs in size, shape and presence only one pyrenoid and a chromatophore. Like Ancycloncuia Nordenskioldii, this microorganism is a characteristic plant of permafrost fields and important in establishing ice blooms on the Columbia Glacier.
The species is the most common ice alga in the Northern Hemisphere and is also found in the Southern Hemisphere, namely in the Andes (Lagerheim, 1892, p. 527) and Antarctica (Gain, 191 2). It was first found on the ice fields of Greenland, where it appeared together with Ancydonema. Cells cylindrical with rounded ends, 14-32 jx diam., 32-70/x long, with a radiating chloroplast and one pyrenoid in each half-cell.
Cells small, moderately curved, inner margin moderately concave 6 jLi diam., 36-45 ix long, cell wall smooth and colorless, chloroplast with 3-4 pyrenoids; terminal vacuoles with one moving grain. 54 I found one specimen with a io-/.-thick mucous covering, which was probably induced by adaptation to living conditions on ice and snow (pi.
CYANOPHYCEAE
CHROOCOCCALES
HORMOGONALES
eam nominavi in honorem celeberrimi rectoris Montis McKinley National Park, Harry J.
FUNGI
Berczi's attention to a parasitic fungus observed by me in the cells of Ancycloncnia Nordenskioldii collected on the Columbia Glacier. The trophozoites of this chytrid are extramatrical and lie close together on the vegetative cells of Ancycloncma. Young, mature pods are spherical, 7-10 ju, in diameter, with a rhizoid that is slightly developed and branched.
Zoospores are spherical, 3 /a in diameter and emerge from the sporangia through a large apical pore.
SUMMARY
It is also affected by the proximity of the rocks, the dust from them that comes to the surface. From the point of view of their chemical character we can distinguish calcitrophic and silicotrophic environments, and from their physical character snow, fir and ice. Plants that grow in these places can be called snow or nivalis-cryobionts (planta nivicola), ice or glacialis-cryobionts. planta glacicicola), and myco-cryobionts or cryoxen.
Three very interesting natural phenomena appear in the cryoenvironments of Alaska: The cayenne colored snow on Thompson. Pass, the brown-violet ice bloom on the Colombia Glacier, and the colonies of snow fleas on Gastineau Peak. Among these microorganisms were 12 nivalis cryobionts (snow algae), 10 glacialis cryobionts (ice organisms), 3 mixo-cryobionts and 4 cryo-bionts.
From this we can conclude that the spread of cryo-vegetation also depends on the environment and geographical location.
LITERATURE CITED
EXPLANATION OF PLATES
2-12, first division of new cells after zygospore germination; 2, 4, the young cell has a small pyrenoid.
SNOW AND ICE ALGAE OF ALASKA- — KOL 35
CRYOVEGETATION OF AUASKA
