{"id":63440,"date":"2026-04-18T00:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/63440\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T00:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:36:14","slug":"windblown-dust-is-fueling-algae-that-darken-and-accelerate-greenlands-ice-melt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/63440\/","title":{"rendered":"Windblown dust is fueling algae that darken and accelerate Greenland’s ice melt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Source:<\/p>\n

Source: Getty Images Bank\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Earth maintains its temperature by balancing incoming and outgoing energy. The light and heat energy from the sun is called solar radiation. The Earth reflects some of this energy back into space and absorbs the rest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The amount of solar radiation that is reflected or absorbed depends on a surface’s properties. Bright surfaces like snow, ice, and clouds reflect a lot of energy. Dark surfaces like oceans, forests, and soil reflect less energy and absorb more.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The value that indicates how much solar radiation is reflected based on a surface’s brightness or material is called ‘albedo.’ Albedo is expressed as a value between 0 and 1. An albedo of 0 means all energy is absorbed, while an albedo of 1 means all is reflected.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The albedo of clean snow and glaciers is about 0.7 to 0.8, meaning they reflect about 70-80% of the solar energy they receive. This is why the polar regions, covered in snow and ice, are called ‘Earth’s reflectors.’<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the Earth’s temperature rises, the amount of solar radiation reflected by the Arctic is decreasing. This is because the vast sea ice in the Arctic is melting rapidly. Sea ice, which is frozen seawater, is only a few meters thick. Floating on the ocean, it is affected by the air temperature from above and the water temperature from below. This is why sea ice melts faster than glaciers, which are formed from compacted snow on land.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When sea ice melts, the dark ocean water is exposed. The albedo of the blue ocean is about 0.1, reflecting only 10% of solar radiation and absorbing 90%. As the ocean and air absorb heat and warm up, the sea ice melts even faster, creating a vicious cycle where the heat absorbed by the Arctic increases further.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to NASA, the World Meteorological Organization, and other sources, the Arctic is warming two to three times faster than other regions of the planet. As the Arctic temperature rises, the thick land glaciers also begin to melt. The meltwater flows into the sea, causing sea levels to rise.<\/p>\n

Sea-level rise can submerge coastal areas, destroying habitats for living creatures, and can affect the climate by changing the area, temperature, and volume of ocean water. This is why scientists closely monitor the condition of Arctic ice as a critical indicator of climate change.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The dark zone of the Greenland ice sheet as seen from a satellite. Credit: Jenine McCutcheon<\/p>\n

\u25cf Why is Greenland’s ice turning black?<\/p>\n

Greenland, located in the Arctic, is an island with about 80% of its landmass covered by an ice sheet. An ice sheet is a vast expanse of ice covering more than 50,000 km\u00b2. Like sea ice, the Greenland ice sheet helps regulate the Earth’s temperature by reflecting solar radiation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the 2000s, a ‘dark zone,’ where the ice has darkened into a black band, has begun to appear on the western side of the Greenland ice sheet. This is due to the growth of dark-colored microalgae on the ice. Microalgae are tiny organisms that live on the surface of water, snow, and ice, using sunlight to produce nutrients.<\/p>\n

They are originally green due to chlorophyll, a pigment that absorbs sunlight, but when exposed to strong sunlight for long periods, they produce red or brown pigments to protect themselves. However, it was not known how these dark-colored microalgae spread so widely across the Greenland ice sheet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Reddened<\/p>\n

In January 2026,\u00a0a joint research team including Canada’s University of Waterloo published a study in the international journal ‘Environmental Science & Technology’ showing that dust from surrounding areas helped the microalgae on the ice to thrive.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The research team collected and analyzed the composition of aerosols from the air near the dark zone and samples of snow and ice from the ice sheet. Their analysis confirmed the presence of mineral dust particles in the aerosols, snow, and ice samples. The mineral dust originated from the erosion of rocks on the bare land surrounding the ice sheet and was carried by the wind to the dark zone.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mineral dust was found to be rich in phosphorus (P). Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for living organisms. As this phosphorus-laden dust settled on the ice sheet, it fueled the growth of the microalgae. As the microalgae multiplied and changed color, the dark area of the ice sheet expanded, causing it to absorb more solar radiation. The dark zone ultimately became the fastest-melting region of the Greenland ice sheet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the Greenland ice sheet, the world’s second-largest after the Antarctic ice sheet, melts, the risk of sea-level rise increases significantly. The research team expressed concern, stating, “As temperatures rise, the microalgae are expected to spread to the northern and interior parts of the ice sheet,” and “This could lead to the ice sheet darkening further and the melting area expanding.”<\/p>\n

\u203bRelated Article
Children’s Science Donga, April 15, [A Preview of Integrated Science with the Editorial Department] Reporting from the Field\u00a0<\/p>\n

Copyright \u24d2 DongA Science. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: Getty Images Bank\u00a0 The Earth maintains its temperature by balancing incoming and outgoing energy. The light and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[649,14480,57,1187,6241,34866,34867,34868,34869,34870],"class_list":["post-63440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-arctic","tag-glacier","tag-greenland","tag-ice","tag-sea-ice","tag-34866","tag-34867","tag-34868","tag-34869","tag-34870"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116422914243816758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}