Physiological measurements of terrestrial snow algal isolates from Adelaide Island, collected 2014-2018

As short-term Antarctic summer temperatures approach 20 degrees C, parameterising temperature tolerance for snow algal species is key to determining how climate change may affect community composition and primary productivity as their habitat range changes. This dataset presents data on three Antarctic snow algae strains isolated from snow patches on islands within Ryder Bay, Adelaide Island, off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula in 2014/15 and 2017/18. The strains were isolated and in 2024 and 2025 exposed to temperatures from 4 degrees C to 20 degrees C across four experiments to assess the intraspecific and interspecific effects of temperature on growth, metabolite composition and photochemistry. Of these strains, the growth of Limnomonas sp. and Chlorominima sp. were negatively affected upwards from 8 degrees C and did not survive at 20 degrees C. Micractinium sp. conversely, grew well at all temperatures. Photosynthetic parameters, measured by quantum yield (QY) curves, oxygen production and pigment content, were also minimally affected by temperature in Micractinium sp., whereas Limnomonas sp. showed reduced QY at temperatures at and above 8 degrees C and Chlorominima sp. exhibited the greatest variation in QY and oxygen production across temperature treatments.

The expedition and sampling was carried out by Matthew Davey and Andrew Gray with support from BAS, UK. Samples were transferred to UK (SAMS) for further physiological analysis by Carla Ruiz Gonzalez, Vaila Grigg, Naomi Thomas, Alex Innes Thompson, Ewan MacPherson, Lara Dillon and Emilie Gober. This was part of wider projects with Alison G. Smith, Charles Cockell, Peter Convey.

Funding was provided by NERC Standard Grants NE/V000764/1 and NE/V000896/1, NERC E4 PhD NE/S007407/1, NERC SUPER DTP REP internship NE/S007342/1, NERC BAS Collaborative Gear Sharing Scheme award RJCGS14MPD, and Leverhulme Trust Research Grant RPG-2017-077.