Seasonally slowly melting mountain snowfields are populated by extremophilic microalgae. In alpine habitats, high-light sensitive, green phytoflagellates are usually observed in subsurface layers deeper in the snowpack under dim conditions, while robust orange to reddish cyst stages can be seen exposed on the surface. In this study, uncommon surface green snow was investigated in the High Tatra Mountains (Slovakia). The monospecific community found in the green surface bloom consisted of vegetative Chloromonas cells (Volvocales, Chlorophyta). Molecular data demonstrated that the field sample and the strain isolated and established from the bloom were conspecific, and they represent a new species, Chloromonas kaweckae sp. nov., which is described based on the morphology of the vegetative cells and asexual reproduction and on molecular analyses of the strain. Cells of C. kaweckae accumulated approximately 50% polyunsaturated fatty acids, which is advantageous at low temperatures. In addition, this new species performed active photosynthesis at temperatures close to the freezing point showed a light compensation point of 126 ± 22 μmol photons · m-2 · s-1 and some signs of photoinhibition at irradiances greater than 600 μmol photons · m-2 · s-1 . These data indicate that the photosynthetic apparatus of C. kaweckae could be regarded as adapted to relatively high light intensities, otherwise unusual for most flagellate stages of snow algae.

Department of Ecology Charles University Faculty of Science Prague 128 44 Czech Republic

National Institute for Environmental Studies Biodiversity Division 16 2 Onogawa Tsukuba Ibaraki 305 8506 Japan

The Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany Centre for Phycology Dukelská 135 379 82 Třeboň Czech Republic

The Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Microbiology Vídeňská 1083 Prague 142 20 Czech Republic

University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria School of Engineering Stelzhamerstr 23 Wels 4600 Austria

University of Tsukuba Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences 1 1 1 Tennodai Tsukuba Ibaraki 305 8572 Japan

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