Abstract Project: AWIPEV_0033

Runa Antony (GFZ)

The presence of liquid water and sunlight in summer results in blooms of pigmented microalgae on snow and ice surfaces across the cryosphere. Their high abundance during the summer, darkens the ice surface, causing it to absorb more sunlight, reducing its albedo and consequently melt faster. This has implications for both the physical integrity (melt) and chemistry (nutrient and carbon cycling) of the ice surface, making the glacier algae a potentially important component of the glacial carbon and water cycles. Yet, there is a temporal bias in our understanding of microbial diversity and activity on glacier surfaces year-round as most studies focus on the spring and summer. With this project, we aim to collect snow/ice surface samples and interface cores from glaciers around Ny- lesund in both winter and summer to assess the seasonal differences in microbial diversity, function, and activity and correlate them with snow/ice geochemistry. This will provide detailed complementary insights into the seasonality of the microbial communities and their associated carbon and nutrient cycling in the cryosphere.