Chinese glaciology professor Zhang Wenjing, who, on a scientific investigation tour in the North Pole, has discovered snow algae on the Longyearbyen Glacier of Svalbard Islands.
This is the first time for Zhang, who has been engaged in glacier studies for 32 years, to find snow algae on glaciers, which is also an important achievement by China's North Pole investigation team.
Discovery of snow algae indicates an existence of rudimentary lives, which are rarely found in other similar glacial environments, and therefore enriches the contents of varieties of living creatures in glacial areas.
Studying of the living conditions and reproduction way of North Pole's snow algae is of great significance in researching into the birth, life and evolution of lives in glacier regions, said professor Zhang.
The 55-year-old Zhang is a research fellow with the Chengdu researching institute of disaster and environment of mountainous areas under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), who graduated from Lanzhou University in 1970 with a major of glaciology.
(People's Daily August 2, 2002)
