2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
A study on parasitic chytrids on snow algae
| Project/Area Number |
20K21840
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Review Section |
Medium-sized Section 63:Environmental analyses and evaluation and related fields
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| Research Institution | Chiba University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
鏡味 麻衣子 横浜国立大学, 大学院環境情報研究院, 教授 (20449250)
村上 正志 千葉大学, 大学院理学研究院, 教授 (50312400)
瀬川 高弘 山梨大学, 大学院総合研究部, 講師 (90425835)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-07-30 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | 氷河 / 積雪 / ツボカビ / 雪氷藻類 / 暗色化 / 寄生 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Snow and glacier algae, which are photosynthetic microbes growing on snow and ice, are often observed to be infected by parasitic chytrid fungi. In this study, we described morphology of chytrid infecting glacier algae and quantified their prevalence of infection in different habitats on a mountain glacier in Alaska. A glacier alga, A. nordenskioldii, was dominant on the ablating ice surface of the glacier and was often infected by chytrids. Although the prevalence of infection did not significantly vary among the different elevations of the glacier, it was significantly higher for algae in cryoconite holes (20 %) than those on ice surface (4%). This indicates that chytrid infection actively spread more in cryoconite holes compared with on the ice surface. Results suggest that cryoconite holes are hot spots of chytrid infection of glacier algae, and dynamics of cryoconite holes may affect the growth rate or mortality of the algae on glaciers.
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| Free Research Field |
雪氷生物学
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
現在，北極圏の氷河を中心に雪氷藻類の繁殖域が拡大し，氷河表面を暗色に着色し融解速度が速まっていることが報告されている．本研究では，その雪氷藻類には，普遍的にツボカビが寄生していることが明らかになった．このことは，ツボカビは藻類による氷河の融解加速を抑制する効果があることを示唆している．今後さらに詳しい解析が必要であるが，氷河上の藻類とツボカビの関係を明らかにすることは，雪氷圏の将来予測に重要となる可能性がある．さらに，日本の積雪にも藻類に寄生するツボカビの存在が広く明らかになったことは，日本でもまだ理解の進んでいない積雪上の生態系解明に重要な意味をもつ．
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