Algal photophysiology drives darkening and melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Williamson, Christopher J., Cook, Joseph, Tedstone, Andrew, Yallop, Marian, McCutcheon, Jenine, Poniecka, Ewa, Cambell, Douglas, Irvine-Fynn, Tristram, McQuaid, James, Tranter, Martyn, Perkins, Rupert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0810-2656 and Anesio, Alexandre 2020. Algal photophysiology drives darkening and melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (11) , pp. 5694-5707. 10.1073/pnas.1918412117

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Abstract

Blooms of Zygnematophycean “glacier algae” lower the bare ice albedo of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), amplifying summer energy absorption at the ice surface and enhancing meltwater runoff from the largest cryospheric contributor to contemporary sea-level rise. Here, we provide a step change in current understanding of algal-driven ice sheet darkening through quantification of the photophysiological mechanisms that allow glacier algae to thrive on and darken the bare ice surface. Significant secondary phenolic pigmentation (11 times the cellular content of chlorophyll a) enables glacier algae to tolerate extreme irradiance (up to ∼4,000 µmol photons⋅m−2⋅s−1) while simultaneously repurposing captured ultraviolet and short-wave radiation for melt generation. Total cellular energy absorption is increased 50-fold by phenolic pigmentation, while glacier algal chloroplasts positioned beneath shading pigments remain low-light–adapted (Ek ∼46 µmol photons⋅m−2⋅s−1) and dependent upon typical nonphotochemical quenching mechanisms for photoregulation. On the GrIS, glacier algae direct only ∼1 to 2.4% of incident energy to photochemistry versus 48 to 65% to ice surface melting, contributing an additional ∼1.86 cm water equivalent surface melt per day in patches of high algal abundance (∼104 cells⋅mL−1). At the regional scale, surface darkening is driven by the direct and indirect impacts of glacier algae on ice albedo, with a significant negative relationship between broadband albedo (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [MODIS]) and glacier algal biomass (R2 = 0.75, n = 149), indicating that up to 75% of the variability in albedo across the southwestern GrIS may be attributable to the presence of glacier algae.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Additional Information:	This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
Publisher:	National Academy of Sciences
ISSN:	0027-8424
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	7 February 2020
Date of Acceptance:	16 January 2020
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2024 21:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/129417

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