ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Cryospheric Sciences
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1596472
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Atmospheric and Environmental Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Mountain Cryosphere: A Multidisciplinary PerspectiveView all 3 articles
Aggregation of mineral particles in cryoconite granules by multiple species of cyanobacteria on Urumqi Glacier No.1, China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
- 2Chiba University, Chiba, Chiba, Japan
- 3Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Cryoconite granules are microbial aggregations formed by filamentous cyanobacteria with mineral particles on the bare ice surface of glaciers worldwide.Multiple species of filamentous cyanobacteria in cryoconite granules can usually be microscopically and phylogenetically identified. However, the roles of each species in the formation process of granules remain unclear. In this study, the compositions of filamentous cyanobacteria and minerals, as well as the microstructure of cryoconite granules of different sizes collected on a mountain glacier in central Asia, were analyzed. Three distinct morphological taxa of filamentous cyanobacteria (Types A, B, and C) were observed in cryoconite granules, with Types B and C being dominant 2 across all size fractions. Scanning electron microscope observation revealed that Type B often had abundant small mineral particles on its filament surface, while Type C was mostly without or with only a few mineral particles. Abundant clay minerals were found in all size fractions of granules. Our results suggest that cyanobacterial taxa play a different role in binding mineral particles within cryoconite granules and that the presence of multiple taxa of filamentous cyanobacteria contributes to the effective growth of these granules on the glacier surface.
Keywords: cryoconite granules, cyanobacterial taxa, mineral categories, SEM observation, cyanobacteria-mineral interaction
Received: 19 Mar 2025; Accepted: 13 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Takeuchi, Tanaka and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nozomu Takeuchi, Chiba University, Chiba, 263-8522, Chiba, Japan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.