TY - JOUR UR - https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1341v1 DO - 10.7287/peerj.preprints.1341v1 TI - Metagenomic and satellite analyses of red snow in the Russian Arctic AU - Hisakawa,Nao AU - Quistad,Steven AU - Hester,Eric R AU - Martynova,Daria AU - Maughan,Heather AU - Sala,Enric AU - Gavrilo,Maria AU - Rohwer,Forest DA - 2015/09/04 PY - 2015 KW - red snow KW - snow KW - arctic KW - watermelon snow KW - viruses KW - Franz Josef Land KW - phage KW - metagenomics AB - Cryophilic algae thrive in liquid water within snow and ice in alpine and polar regions worldwide. Blooms of these algae lowers albedo (reflection of sunlight), thereby altering melting patterns (Kohshima et al. 1993; Lutz et al. 2014; Thomas & Duval 1995) . Here metagenomic DNA analysis and satellite imaging were used to investigate red snow in Franz Josef Land in the Russian Arctic. Franz Josef Land red snow metagenomes confirmed that the communities are composed of the autotroph Chlamydomonas nivalis that is supporting a complex viral and heterotrophic bacterial community. Comparisons with white snow communities from other sites suggest that snow and ice are initially colonized by fungal-dominated communities and then succeeded by the more complex C. nivalis-heterotroph red snow. Satellite image analysis showed that red snow covers up to 80% of the surface of snow and ice fields in Franz Josef Land and globally. Together these results show that C. nivalis supports a local food web that is on the rise as temperatures warm, with potential widespread impacts on alpine and polar environments worldwide. VL - 3 SP - e1341v1 T2 - PeerJ PrePrints JO - PeerJ PrePrints J2 - PeerJ PrePrints SN - 2167-9843 ER -