Mysterious pink "watermelon snow" has been appearing in the Italian Alps — and it may warn of environmental disaster - CBS News

Biagio Di Mauro, of the Institute of Polar Sciences (ISP) at Italy's National Research Council, traveled to the glacier last week to investigate the mysterious algae.

Di Mauro said on Twitter that the algae was likely Chlamydomonas nivalis, a snow alga, not Ancylonema nordenskioeldi, a glacier alga.

According to a 2018 study published in the journal Nature, snow algae productivity has implications for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The algae could accelerate melting in the already fragile region. Climate change, contributing to 2020's unseasonably warm temperatures and lack of snow, is exacerbating the issue. .

"Everything that darkens the snow causes it to melt because it accelerates the absorption of radiation," said Di Mauro

At the time, scientists said that as the planet warms and more of Antarctica's snow melts, the algae will only continue to spread