CASP-ICE: Cryospheric Algal Sampling Protocols - International Collaboration and Exchange

Chlorophyte "snow algae" and Streptophyte "glacier algae" are found across the cryosphere, forming widespread algal blooms in snowpacks and on glacier ice surfaces during spring/summer melt seasons. These blooms hold significant potential to exacerbate the already rapid loss of snowpack and glacial ice resources driven by climate change because they establish albedo feedbacks that amplify melt. Their presence also leads to the construction of active microbial food-webs that provide important ecosystem functions, e.g. carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling and export of resources to down-steam systems. The algae themselves are also important analogs for what life was like on Earth during past mass glaciations, and for how life may exist on other frozen planets across our solar system.
Driven by these series of novelties, the snow and glacier algal research community has significantly expanded over recent years, with active projects now spanning Arctic, Alpine and Antarctic regions of the cryosphere. To-date, however, research projects have tended to work in isolation, employing different methods for the analysis of blooms. This has prevented comparisons of findings between regions of the cryosphere and an overall appreciation for the global role and impacts of blooms at present. In turn, we cannot yet project the fate of snow and glacier algal blooms into the future under climate change, or back to the past during key periods of Earth's history. Yet the critical mass achieved in the snow and glacier algal research community also presents an opportunity to pool knowledge and resources, and align methods to drive the field to new achievements.

The CASP-ICE project brings together leaders in the field of snow and glacier algal research (x2 UK investigators and x12 international partners) to undertake the foundational work needed to align efforts across the research community and unlock the next generation of science on snow and glacier algal blooms cryosphere-wide. Specifically, we will tackle the following four major tasks:

1. Define consistent methods for sampling and mapping snow and glacier algal blooms within field sites, so that datasets produced into the future will be completely comparable across different regions and times of sampling.

2. Apply these methods in study sites that the CASP-ICE team are currently working to produce the first set of standardized samples and maps of blooms for the community to work with.

3. Undertake the nuts-and-bolts validation of both laboratory-based methods for analyzing field samples as well as computational methods for integrating field measurements and mapping datasets with larger-scale satellite imagery that is needed to monitor blooms at global scales.

4. Establish a list of field sites that can form the backbone of an ongoing cryospheric algal bloom monitoring network and secure the funding to continue monitoring into the future.

CASP-ICE will achieve these tasks through a series of networking and knowledge exchange activities as well as hands-on science. An initial workshop in spring 2024 will provide the platform to define best practice methods for the community and start talks on future network structure and direction. All partners will then undertake sampling and sample/data analysis across their respective study regions to produce the first fully validated datasets on snow and glacier algal blooms across the cryosphere. The protocols defined and datasets produced will be leveraged in subsequent funding bids that will be prepared during a series of networking visits and partner meetings led by the project PI, providing the support needed for ongoing monitoring of blooms into the future as climate change proceeds.

CASP-ICE will provide the network and scientific foundation needed to tackle the large-scale questions about the role of cryospheric algal blooms in the Earth System at present, into the future under climate change, and back into the past.