These algae lovers of ice can play an important role in the health of the lake. But the time ticchetta to find out more

At the top of the ice, the lakes in winter don’t seem much. They are sterile and apparently lifeless, a white expanse that extends as far as the eye can see.

But the view from below is something completely different and magical, according to the journalist Andrew Budziak.

“It is as if someone had taken a cathedral and turned it on one side … the ceiling is stained with glass and the light comes through the ice in a completely surreal way,” Budziak said The current It hosts Matt Galloway. “It’s all very calm and very firm.”

Budziak says he has always loved diving, but in recent years he has made great dive into icy waters throughout the Ontario in the name of science.

While the world under the ice might seem firm, in reality it is alive with microorganisms like algae all year round, both in the water and inside the ice.

With the help of Budziak and the diving team, the researchers are giving a new look at a specific community of algae that comes out at the bottom of the ice bottom during the winter through the samples, underwater bring the topside. And the researchers say that they are running against time to understand this group of algae before climate change upsets the ice they call home, possibly threatening the algae and damaging the ecosystem.

How to study under ice algae?

The researchers have known that some types of algae live inside and around the ice For years. But in the mid -2000s, some scientists on a ship noticed that the lower part of pieces of bobbing ice in the wake of the boat were completely brown with algae.

Andrew Bramburger – a researcher with the environment and Canada climate change – says that when that group tried to extract ice from the water to control the underlying algae, the fragile microorganisms slipped immediately, making it impossible to get a good champion.

Those researchers were able to determine From the residual pieces left on the ice that the algae were diatomee – a sort of single cell algae that photosynt up or produce energy from sunlight.

“We know that (the diatomee are) a really important food source This is the basis of the entire aquatic food network in large lakes, “said Bramburger.” So we started thinking, you know, if we lose the ice and lose the algae with the ice, what does it actually mean? “

Watch | Trailer for Andrew Budziak’s documentary on the collection of samples from under the ice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vsb2zpyefq

But since extracting the ice from the water disturbed the algae, answering this question remained difficult.

It was then that Budziak entered. He was talking to Bramburger for a different documentary project when the two began to discuss this algae Bramburger hoped to study.

Budziak asked if a diving team would have worked to recover the champions and Bramburger thought it was worth it. Within a few weeks, the two started building a mechanism to collect algae and assemble a diving team. Budziak was Daughter the process For a documentary.

How it works

Put simply, the collection device looks like a plexiglass dome with two bags connected to both sides by the pipes. Every bag full of air and one that is empty-a one-way valve has.

The plexiglass dome absorned on the lower surface of the ice. So, the diver leaves the first bag in the plexiglass dome. The gurgling air inside the dome is sufficient to gently throw algae from ice and water. That water is collected in the empty bag, creating a clean and scientifically relevant sample full of algae ice lovers.

Budziak, Bramburger and an ice diving expert tested the trial for the first time in the winter of 2023 on the Simcoe lake. In winters since then, Bramburger claims to have perfected their technique and to have started collecting champions from Lake Boschi near Kenora, Ontario.

Overall, take into account the time, plan catastrophes, obtain equipment on the site and more require weeks or months of preparation.

The divers themselves fight the cold conditions with a list of laundry equipment including dry dresses, long underwear, heated jackets and gloves.

But Calum Cawley says it’s worth it.

“The feeling of being underwater and above all under the ice is special alone,” said the diver. “But … being able to provide things that the scientific community finds interesting, I thought it was really nice.”

What they found

The 33 samples that have collected this winter so far are studied by at least a few dozen researchers throughout North America, according to Bramburger.

He says that no research has yet been published, but he adds that the first studies will probably be presented in the coming months.

Andrea Kirkwood, an algal ecologist and professor at Ontario Tech University, who is not involved in this diving and collected project, says that the bramburger research and the team are undertaking is really exciting because it will help to fill a gap of knowledge on what microorganisms live in this space just under the ice.

Bramburger also claims to have made an interesting initial observation: that algae in these champions constitute a distinct community, unique by the types of algae that live elsewhere in the water.

The discovery of this unique community is particularly important because of climate change, says Bramburger: while the ice begins to disappear, the algae that call him home will probably be affected in some way.

He says it is possible that some of these types of algae will extend in the future without ice, while others may find a way to float near the surface and survive.

“I suspect they would still be alive, but they wouldn’t be terribly happy,” Bramburger estimates.

But whether or not the algae are “happy” could have serious consequences on the ecosystem that surrounds them. Since many of these types of algae release oxygen and are a critical base of the food chain, their survival could have impacts on the levels of carbon dioxide from lakes and ecosystems in them, it hypothesizes Bramburger.

Kirkwood agrees that the initial discovery opens more questions about how global warming will have an impact on this population. If these good algae that produces oxygen should suffer from an ice loss, it is possible that bad algae-as Toxic blooms that grow in summer – He would have more resources to thrive, says Kirkwood.

Yes, he says that the blooms of algae who came out from August or September last Well in autumn.

The dissolution of the ice also places a painful irony for the team. While it will take more collection of samples and more research to understand how precious the ice is, the hottest winters are making it an even more difficult task.

Some of the samples collected will be cryogenically frozen at the Canadian Nature Museum. In this way, if the ice coverage disappears and microorganisms die, at least one record of them will remain, according to Roger Bull who manages the national biodiversity of the Cryobank Museum.

For Budziak, he hopes that insurance is never necessary and that the ultra-canadic effort will help protect our lakes.

“(The Canadians are) adventurous … we adore winter,” Budziak said. “We love our lakes and we should work hard to understand and protect them”.