Conférence : Les algues des neiges
07July2025
Conference by Éric Maréchal, researcher at the Cellular and Plant Physiology laboratory.
Every year at the end of spring, it is not uncommon to see melting snow, what we call névés, turning pink and red, sometimes over a few square centimetres, sometimes as far as the eye can see.
This phenomenon has been known for millennia and has intrigued everyone from the greatest scientists to ordinary hikers. It is sometimes confused with the deposit of sand from the Sahara.
The red snow, however, is due to the proliferation of microscopic algae, the name of which has only been known for five years!
And these algae do not live alone.
A wonderful and little-known microbial world inhabits the snowfields! The conference will summarize more than two thousand years of research and present the most recent data obtained by expert researchers in biology, ecology, and glaciology from the AlpAlga project.
The future of this wonderful ecosystem in the context of global warming will also be discussed.
A friendly drink is offered at the end of the conference.
This phenomenon has been known for millennia and has intrigued everyone from the greatest scientists to ordinary hikers. It is sometimes confused with the deposit of sand from the Sahara.
The red snow, however, is due to the proliferation of microscopic algae, the name of which has only been known for five years!
And these algae do not live alone.
A wonderful and little-known microbial world inhabits the snowfields! The conference will summarize more than two thousand years of research and present the most recent data obtained by expert researchers in biology, ecology, and glaciology from the AlpAlga project.
The future of this wonderful ecosystem in the context of global warming will also be discussed.
A friendly drink is offered at the end of the conference.
Dates and times
| Opening hours on July 07, 2025 | |
|---|---|
| Monday | Open |
