The Living Snow Project’s goal is to engage the outdoor recreation community in research that is characterizing the biodiversity of pink snow and its impact on snowmelt dynamics. By empowering people of all ages to participate in science in the places they love to play, we help cultivate a deeper awareness of our living planet and a greater appreciation for the conservation of threatened ecosystems. The Living Snow Project is run out of Western Washington University. Anyone who is visiting an alpine region in the US can participate (we also welcome volunteers from our Canadian neighbors).
Snow algae blooms, while natural, also cause harm to our alpine environments by increasing the rate of snowpack and glacier melt. The triggers for snow algae blooms are not well understood and we do not have historical records of blooms of algae in any mountain range. The Living Snow Project will provide baseline data of blooms and species distributions that will allow scientists to study the correlation of blooms with atmospheric conditions and climate change and track changes over time. Many groups are studying snow algae around the world, but The Living Snow project is building the largest database in the world of snow algae bloom because they have help from back county recreationists.
This project is 100% run by students and volunteers. It has been supported, in part, by Western Washington University grants from The Whatcom Foundation, NASA Nevada EPSCoR (to collaborators at DRI to jumpstart Living Snow in the Sierras), the Mazamas, the American Alpine Club (to R. Mallon), the National Science Foundation through related grants (to R. Kodner), and many generous donations through Western Washington University’s crowdfunding opportunities.