MCA: Environmental Drivers of Snow Algae Bloom Dynamics, Physiology, and Life-Cycles

雪藻是一组适应于生活在冰冻环境中的光合微生物，是高山和极地雪生态系统中主要的初级生产者。这些生物具有复杂的生命周期，与环境条件和季节性生境变化密切相关。当雪藻在雪的顶部开花时，由于藻类细胞内产生的红色保护色素，它们的高生物量使雪原变暗。雪藻大量繁殖增加了雪和冰川的融化，由于液态水的可用性，促进了更多的生长，并形成了一个正反馈循环。尽管它们在生态上很重要，但我们仍然不知道它们是如何形成的。该项目正在研究雪藻水华的动态，通过使用实地和实验室实验解决雪藻生理学，生长和繁殖及其环境之间的关系。 这项研究还为主要的本科院校提供了一种新的，功能强大的仪器，用于同时测量藻类的光合作用和碳固定，可以在现场使用，并促进基于现场的实验。这项研究的结果建立了进一步的研究，这将有助于预测雪藻环境生物学相互作用到future.The雪藻水华动态，生命周期和环境条件之间的连接的能力，是一个机会，研究生态系统对气候变暖的响应在一个易于处理的系统。该项目为表征雪藻华的碳固定和初级生产力的基本原理奠定了基础。它还增加了我们对雪藻生理学在适应不同栖息地的雪藻生命阶段的生长和繁殖中所起的基本作用的理解。拟议的现场和实验室方法将允许开发一个实验设计，同时测量栖息地条件，初级生产力和自然种群的碳固定，并作为未来研究和持续合作的启动点。雪藻系统提供了一个机会，研究气候生态系统反馈的环境受到严重的栖息地损失在下一个世纪的演变。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Snow algae, a group of photosynthetic microorganisms that are adapted to live in frozen habitats, are the major group of primary producers in alpine and polar snow ecosystems. These organisms have complex life cycles intimately connected to environmental conditions and seasonal habitat transformations. When snow algae bloom on the top of snow, their high biomass darkens snowfields due to red-colored protective pigments produced inside the algal cells. Snow algae blooms increase melting of snow and glaciers, promoting more growth due to the availability of liquid water, and resulting in a positive feedback loop. Despite their ecological importance, we still do not know how blooms form. This project is studying the dynamics of snow algae blooms by addressing the relationships between snow algae physiology, growth and reproduction, and their environment using field and laboratory-based experiments. This research is also providing a primarily undergraduate institution with a new, powerful instrument for simultaneously measuring photosynthesis and carbon fixation in algae that can be used in the field and facilitate field-based experiments. The results of this study build capacity for further studies that will help predict snow algal environment-biology interactions into the future.The connection between snow algal bloom dynamics, life cycle, and environmental conditions represents an opportunity to study ecosystem responses to climate warming in a tractable system. This project lays the foundation for characterizing the fundamentals of carbon fixation and primary productivity in snow algal blooms. It also increases our understanding of the fundamental role that snow algae physiology plays in the growth and reproduction of snow algae across life stages adapted to different habitats. The proposed field and laboratory methods will allow the development of an experimental design to simultaneously measure habitat conditions, primary productivity, and carbon fixation in natural populations and serves as a launch point for future studies and continued collaboration. The snow algal system presents an opportunity to study the evolution of climate-ecosystem feedbacks in environments threatened by significant habitat loss over the next century.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.