Cryobiology

Single-cell Imaging Reveals Efficient Nutrient Uptake And Growth Of Microalgae Darkening The Greenland Ice Sheet

By Keith Cowing

Status Report

Nature Communications

March 18, 2025

Filed under cryobiology, extremophile, glacier, Greenland, Metabolism, microalgae, microbiology, Nature Communications, water ice

Single-cell Imaging Reveals Efficient Nutrient Uptake And Growth Of Microalgae Darkening The Greenland Ice Sheet — a The black square in the map insert shows the location of the sampling site, located close to the PROMICE station QAS_M, upwind and next to the ice camp to minimize potential contamination. b Incubation of unfiltered melted ice samples in replicate serum bottles on the surface of the ice sheet. c Microscopic image of the supraglacial community prior incubation. Black arrows indicate fungal hyphae, and white arrows point to putatively dead Ancylonema nordenskiöldii cells, potentially infected by parasitic fungi. d Microscopic image of the supraglacial glacier ice algae, Ancylonema nordenskiöldii. Scale bars in (c) and (d) are 10 µm. — Nature Communications

Blooms of dark pigmented microalgae accelerate glacier and ice sheet melting by reducing the surface albedo.

However, the role of nutrient availability in regulating algal growth on the ice remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate glacier ice algae on the Greenland Ice Sheet, providing single-cell measurements of carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus (C:N:P) ratios and assimilation rates of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), ammonium and nitrate following nutrient amendments.

The single-cell analyses reveal high C:N and C:P atomic ratios in algal biomass as well as intracellular P storage. DIC assimilation rates are not enhanced by ammonium, nitrate, or phosphate addition.

Our combined results demonstrate that glacier ice algae can optimise nutrient uptake, facilitating the potential colonization of newly exposed bare ice surfaces without the need for additional nutrient inputs.

This adaptive strategy is particularly important given accelerated climate warming and the expansion of melt areas on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Single-cell imaging reveals efficient nutrient uptake and growth of microalgae darkening the Greenland Ice Sheet, Nature Communications (open access)

Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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