HR: 0800h
AN: B31A-0195    [Abstracts]
TI: Characteristics of Glacier Ecosystem and Glaciological Importance of Glacier Microorganisms
AU: * Kohshima, S
EM: kohshima@bio.titech.ac.jp
AF: Dep. Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-W3-43 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8551 Japan
AU: Yoshimura, Y
EM: ystk@agr.tamagawa.ac.jp
AF: Dep. Agriculture, Tamagawa University, 6-1-1 Tamagawagakuen, Mchida-shi, Tokyo, 194-8610 Japan
AU: Takeuchi, N
EM: takeuchi@chikyu.ac.jp
AF: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 335 Takashima-cho, Marutamachi-dori Kawaramachi nishi-iru, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, 602-0878 Japan
AU: Segawa, T
EM: takasega@bio.titech.ac.jp
AF: Dep. Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-W3-43 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8551 Japan
AU: Uetake, J
EM: juetake@bio.titech.ac.jp
AF: Dep. Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-W3-43 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8551 Japan
AB: Biological activity on glaciers has been believed to be extremely limited. However, we found various biotic communities specialized to the glacier environment in various part of the world, such as Himalaya, Patagonia and Alaska. Some of these glacier hosted biotic communities including various cold-tolerant insects, annelids and copepods that were living in the glacier by feeding on algae and bacteria growing in the snow and ice. Thus, the glaciers are simple and relatively closed ecosystems sustained by the primary production in the snow and ice. Since these microorganisms growing on the glacier surface are stored in the glacial strata every year, ice-core samples contain many layers with these microorganisms. Recently, it was shown that the snow algae in the ice-core are useful for ice core dating and could be new environmental signals for the studies on past_@environment using ice cores. These microorganisms in the ice core will be important especially in the studies of ice core from the glaciers of warmer regions, in which chemical and isotopic contents are often heavily disturbed by melt water percolation. Blooms of algae and bacteria on the glacier can reduce the surface albedo and significantly affect the glacier melting. For example, the surface albedo of some Himalayan glaciers was significantly reduced by a large amount of dark-colored biogenic material (cryoconite) derived from snow algae and bacteria. It increased the melting rates of the surfaces by as much as three-fold. Thus, it was suggested that the microbial activity on the glacier could affect the mass balance and fluctuation of the glaciers.
UR: http://www.ecology.bio.titech.ac.jp/Study/glacio_bio/G-biology-e.html
DE: 1827 Glaciology (1863)
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
DE: 0614 Biological effects
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting