16 April 2004

Snowed by Snow Science

Forrest M. Mims III

Recently I was surprised to find microscopic protozoa swimming through a drop of snow melt collected on 27 March 2004 from near the National Solar Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains of Southern New Mexico ("Forrest Mims" World of Science," The Citizen Scientist, 16 April 2004, www.sas.org).

Dust from a major windstorm and soot from Asian fires coated the upper layer of snow in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico in March 2004. Also present were fungal spores and aquatic microorganisms. Click image to enlarge.

Previous reports have described protozoa, fungi and bacteria in snow. Rotifers, which are much more complex than protozoa, feed on snow algae in tiny pools of molten snow. The snow where the protozoa I found was not molten

The origin of the protozoa in the alpine snow I sampled is an intriguing mystery. They might have blown in during the giant dust story of 19 February 2004, which coated the snow with a layer of mineral dust and microscopic gypsum crystals from White Sands National Monument.

The snow was also dusted with soot from the large scale fires in Southeast Asia during all of March. This raises the fascinating prospect that some of those protozoa might have arrived with smoke from the Southeast Asian fires.

This is a perfect science opportunity for amateurs and cross-disciplinarian professionals. Atmospheric chemists have traditionally incinerated their air samples to determine the total carbon content. Allergists examine their samples for pollen and fungal spores with a microscope, but they typically do not report soot, dust and anything else they see.

Snow is a natural collector of aerosols that eventually reach the surface. So perhaps amateur scientists in snow country will prepare now to begin inspecting next winter"s snow for carbon, mineral dust, fungal spores, algae, protozoa and rotifers.

Only a tiny handful of professional scientists conduct such studies. They are biologists fascinated by life at the edge. One of their leading lights is Dr. Ronald Hoham, a professor of biology at Colgate University. Hoham"s home page (http://departments.colgate.edu/biology/people/RHoham.html) Is a must visit for anyone interested in what lives in and grows upon snow. Consider this quotation:

"The microbes found in snow represent one of the most extreme environments on our planet, which can include living under high UV levels in acidic snow, metabolizing at a temperature near 0 C with low nutrient concentrations for growth and forming resistant spores that must survive in conditions of extreme drought after the snowpack melts. Thus NASA has looked at snow and ice algae as 1 of 4 Earth analogs of life for the possibilities of life outside our planet. These microbes are also used as bioindicators to study increased levels of ultraviolet light and the prolonged effects of acid precipitation."

That"s pretty exciting stuff, and it"s a hint of what"s to be found in "Snow Ecology" (Cambridge University Press, 2001), a wonderful book co-edited by Hoham.

While Professor Ronald Hoham is a professional scientist, his cross-disciplinary approach to the study of the ecology of snow is a good model for amateur scientists to pursue. Snow ecology is niche science. It"s an ideal research area for serious amateur scientists to pursue. I invite you to join me next snow season to see what we can find by examining snow and molten snow through microscopes and by culturing microbes and algae from snow.

Prepare to see unusual things. Be sure to document your investigations carefully. And consider sending well written summaries of your findings to The Citizen Scientist.