IN THE PINK

Italian Researchers Baffled Over Pink Snow on Alps

Scientists are debating whether the pink snow is a result of an algae that accelerates the effects of climate change or something else.

Scientists with Italy’s National Research Council are digging into what’s causing the appearance of pink snow and glacial ice on parts of the Presena glacier in the Alps. There is debate over whether the unusual hue is caused by the same algae responsible for snow and ice discoloration in Greenland’s Dark Zone. The plant, called Ancylonema nordenskioeldii, like all algae also amplifies the melting effects of climate change. “Everything that darkens the snow causes it to melt because it accelerates the absorption of radiation,” Biagio Di Mauro of Italy’s National Research Council told The Guardian. “We are trying to quantify the effect of other phenomena besides the human one on the overheating of the Earth.” Di Mauro also pointed to the presence of hikers and ski lifts as having a possible effect on the proliferation of the algae.