Spatial and Temporal Variations in Pigment and Species Compositions of Snow Algae on Mt. Tateyama in Toyama Prefecture, Japan.

ABSTRACT: Snow algae are photosynthetic microbes that inhabit the melting snow surface in alpine and polar regions. We analyzed the pigment and species composition of colored snow collected on Mt. Tateyama in Japan during the melting seasons of 2015 and 2016. High-performance liquid chromatographic analyses of the pigments extracted from the colored snow showed that their composition varied within the study area and were classified into four types: Type A (astaxanthin-monoester dominant), Type B (medium astaxanthin-monoester content), Type C (abundant primary carotenoids and free-astaxanthin), and Type D (abundant primary carotenoids and astaxanthin diesters). Types A and B were most commonly observed in the study area, whereas Types C and D appeared only at specific sites. Analysis of the 18S ribos

SUBMITTER: Nakashima T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8289405 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature