Bacterial biomass and its effects on albedo in glacial snow pack

CREVELING 12

Biomass is present in glacial snowpack in the forms of bacteria and serves an ecological niche in this type of environment. Yet, biomass accumulation from wind deposition may lead to snow pack being covered, and not able to reflect sunlight efficiently, a quality known as albedo. This hindrance on albedo leads to a rise in temperature in the snow pack, which leads to higher melt rates. We are investigating the potential effects of biomass on the albedo of the snow, and to see what kind of role biomass plays in snow pack. The samples are collected from the Palisades, Middle Palisades, and Dinwoody glaciers using snow pit and snow core methods, and the albedo is recorded at each sampling site with light meter instrumentation. All samples were prepared by means of colorimetric assay and run on the Shimadzu UV-1800 UV-VIS Spectrophotometer at a 570 nm wavelength. Biomass concentrations ran a range from 1.33 µg/ml at the surface of the snowpack with albedo readings reading on average 1.24. After calculating the amount of biomass at the sampling sites, we will be able to see if a correlation exists between the concentration of biomass and the albedo at a given site, which could help explain higher melting rates of glaciers, other than rising global temperatures due to climate change.