Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 55. (Budapest 1963)
Kol, E.: On the red snow of Finse (Norway)
ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Tomus 55. PARS BOTANIC A 1963. On the Ited Snow of Finse (Norway) By E. KOL , Budapest The highest station of the Bergen railway is Finse (1222 m). On the permanent snow fields around the station, one may nearly always find red or pink seston discoloration. The red snow of the North is a natural phenomenon known since long. Fr. MARTENS mentions red snow from the Spitzbergens as early as 1671, but the microorganism, or rather microorganisms, causing red snow were recognized only at a much later time, and the protracted research work of several scientists had been needed ere we could form our present scientific information on this form of life. A number of authors have dealt with the snow vegetation of Norway: BOHLIN (1893, 1895), BOLDT (1888), B ORGE (1899), L AGERHEIM (1883, 1894), N ORDSTEDT (1878), S TRÖM (1923, 1926), W ILLE (1879, 1903), W ITTROCK (1883). Bed snow became known from numerous points in Norway, caused by immense masses of Chlamydomonas nivalis W ILLE . In the followings, I submit two new red snow types from the territory of Norway. In the environments of Finse, and on a substrate of mainly fillite, granite and gneis, snow is of a silikotroph character, its pH = 5—5,8 (according to my researches made in 1931). Red and pinkish snow, the characteristical mass vegetation of these silicotropheous snow surfaces, is a frequent natural phenomenon of this area. In the present paper, I submit the results of my studies made on snow samples 14—22/1956 preserved in the Foreign Algal Collection of the Botanical Department, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. These samples had been collected for me by Dr. B. Z ÓLYOMI , during his field trip in Norway, 1956. Collectings: leg. B. ZÓLYOMI , Finse (1350 m), 22 Sept., 1956; No. 14, grey snow; lő. slightly pinkish snow; 16., 17. a more southern snow patch, greyish snow; 18. spring marsh (not snow); Hardangerjökelen and its environs, 23 Sept. 1956: 19. from surface of abraded glacier, near its margin; 20. red snow patch, 200 m from Hardangerjökelen; 21. red snow; Finse (1220 m): 22. red snow, soiled with soot, from the base of the protecting board-fence near the railway station. Mass distribution of the microorganisms in the red snows around Finse, Norway According to my researches, there occur three different kinds of red snow around Finse: 1. Chlamjiommas nivalis, 2. Chlamydomonas sanguinea and 3. Trochiscia cryophila var. rubra. The quantitative relations of the microorganisms causing the above three kinds of red snow are given on algal diagrams I—III.
