USU
biologists suspect environmental damage from artificial
snow
September 9, 2005 | LOGAN — Snowguns spewing
plumes of fluffy white powder have become a familiar
sight at major ski resorts, where operators are no longer
at the mercy of Mother Nature when it's time to accommodate
the Thanksgiving ski crowd or host a winter sports event.
But could the seemingly innocuous flakes be causing
gradual starvation of mountain vegetation?
Utah State University microbiologists Camille Swasey,
Jon Takemoto and Brad Kropp suspect that a fungicidal
material contained in SnoMax, a widely sold commercial
snow inducer used in snow-making machines, may suppress
fungi on which trees and other plants depend for growth
and survival.
"A large amount of the Earth's carbon flows through
mycorrhizal fungi, root-connected microbes which enable
plants to absorb phosphorous, nitrogen and water and
provide protection from plant pathogens," said
Takemoto, professor and head of USU's biology department.
SnoMax, produced as white pellets that bear a striking
resemblance to flash-frozen Dippin' Dots ice cream,
contains killed Pseudomonas syringae strain
31R – a plant bacterium also known as Ps31R.
"We've studied bacteria resembling Ps31R for years
and suspected that it produces cyclic lipodepsipeptides,
or CLPs, a type of protein that kills fungi by poking
holes into their membranes," said Takemoto.
Grad student Swasey's lab tests of SnoMax indicate
the presence of CLPs, which inhibited the growth of
every ectomycorrhizal species she tested. Because "ectos"
are the only species of root fungi that can be grown
apart from plants in a lab, Swasey is performing similar
tests in a greenhouse on "endos," or endomycorrhizal
fungi collected from alpine locations.
"Our next step is to conduct field trials in an
actual mountain setting," Swasey said. "We
also plan to examine areas of SnoMax use for evidence
of damage consistent with our lab findings."
If Swasey's suspicion that SnoMax harms forest ecosystems
is true, will ski resorts once again fall prey to capricious
weather patterns?
"Not necessarily," said Takemoto. "We
believe SnoMax can be processed with a fairly simple
modification that removes its antifungal properties."
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