Look at the blood red ice in Antarctica! He appeared due to climate change.

Marine ecologist Andrey Zotov from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine took these pictures during research

at the Antarctic station andpostedthem on Facebook.The phenomenon was then studied and the cause was found to be Chlamydomonas nivalis. These microscopic green algae are a type of single-celled seaweed that are common in all icy and snowy regions of the Earth, from arctic to alpine regions.

They "sleep" while the cold reigns, but as soon as the sunlight warms the ice enough for melt water to appear, the algae begin to bloom and multiply rapidly.

"FLOWER" SNOW IN ANTARCTIA There are already a few Ukrainian Antarctic station "Akademik Vernadsky" sharpened...…

Published by National Antarctic Science Center Monday, February 24, 2020

C. nivalis are green due to their photosynthetic chloroplasts, and they have two flagella, due to which they are able to move and swim. As they grow older, they lose their mobility and develop unique devices for survival in extreme conditions, including a secondary insulating cell wall and a layer of red carotenoids, which changes color from green to orange and red. This layer protects the algae from ultraviolet radiation.

Carotenoids also help algae absorbmore heat, which in turn creates more meltwater for their prosperity. This is good for algae and all who eat them - roundworms in particular. Because it contributes to the change of biodiversity in the region, as well as to climate change.

A study conducted in 2016 showedthat the flowering of these algae can reduce the amount of light reflected from snow (also known as albedo) by up to 13% in a single melting season in the Arctic. This will invariably lead to higher melting rates.

In 2017, environmental scientists calculated thatmicrobial communities, including C. nivalis, contributed to more than one sixth of snowmelt when they were present in the ice fields of Alaska. Experiments have shown that in areas with a large amount of melt water there is 50% more algae, and in places with a large amount of algae, further melting occurs.

So rising temperatures cause more water to melt, which encourages more algae to grow, which leads to more melting, and so on.