Table 1.

Pigment composition of snow algae

Pigment		Green community (mg g−1 DCM)	Red community (mg g−1 DCM)
Chl a	↓	3.37 (1.24)	0.28 (0.11)*
Chl b	↓	1.54 (0.47)	0.13 (0.06)*
Chl‐like	↓	1.59 (0.66)	0.00 (0.00)*
β‐Carotene	↓	0.40 (0.16)	0.00 (0.00)*
β‐Carotene‐like	↓	0.02 (0.02)	0.00 (0.00)
Lutein	↓	0.58 (0.19)	0.01 (0.01)*
Xanthophyll	↓	0.21 (0.07)	0.06 (0.03)
Astaxanthin‐like	↑	0.03 (0.02)	0.07 (0.02)
Astaxanthin esters	↑	0.34 (0.13)	0.63 (0.30)

Pigments are expressed as mg g⁻¹ dry cell mass (DCM) from green and red snow algal communities collected from four locations in the maritime Antarctic (Rothera Point, Anchorage Island, Léonie Island and Lagoon Island) during austral summer (January–February) 2015. Data were pooled from all collection sites (mean ± SE, n = 6). Dominant pigments are highlighted in bold.

^* P ≤ 0.05 between green and red communities. Arrows show the trend of change from green to red communities.