Scientists warn that fast-melting glaciers can release large amounts of bacteria into streams and rivers. This could alter icy ecosystems.
Researchers found that glacial runoff at 10 locations in the Northern Hemisphere could lead to hundreds of thousands and tonnes of bacteria entering the environments downstream from receding glaciers.
“We think about glaciers as a large storehouse of frozen water. But the key lesson from this study is that they are also ecosystems,” Arwyn Eds, microbiologist and study author at Aberystwyth University in UK. TelledBBC.
Glaciers are masses or ice that creep slowly towards the sea, carving mountainous valleys in their wake. There is more to the flows that frozen water. Minerals, gases and organic materials are trapped in a one-way slide. Tens of thousands of years to millionsTo terminate
The contents of glaciersThis is like opening another door in history. The microbes that are trapped within them could provide a wealth of new, useful compounds such as antibiotics. Researchers behind this study believe that melting glaciers are releasing tons upon tonnes of bacteria quicker than scientists can catalogue them.
Ian Stevens, a glacial hydrologist from Aarhus University in Denmark, led the team that sampled surface meltwater at ten glaciers throughout the Northern Hemisphere. These included the European Alps (Greenland), Svalbard and the far reaches the Canadian Arctic.
They found on average 100.000 microbes per milliliter of water. This means that they believe more than 100 000 tonnes of bacteria could be released into the glacial meltwaters within the next 80-year period, not counting the Himalaya Hindu Kush region in Asia.
It’s 650,000 tonnes of carbon a year that is released into rivers and lakes across the Northern Hemisphere. But it all depends on how fast the glaciers melt and how much we reduce our emissions.
Below a Emissions scenario from the’middle’ of the road – that would still see global temperatures rise between 2 and 3 °C – masses of bacteria in meltwater are predicted to peak within decades before declining or potentially disappearing entirely as glaciers recede, the researchers found.
“The speed at which glaciers melt and how much global warming we continue to cause will have a significant impact on the number of microbes that are released. Edwards says that even moderate warming will not result in a large release of microbes. .
Scientists discovered earlier this year that Arctic ice was already present. Thinning occurs faster than anticipated. Another research indicates that some glaciers might have already Attained a tipping pointWhere meltwater is declining to a trickle, glacial runoff steadily decreases.
The microbes found in meltwater can fertilize downstream ecologies. But these could be sensitive environments or catchments that are used by communities that rely upon glacial runoff to provide water.
The researchers didn’t study individual strains of bacteria, only estimated their combined biomass, so they could not identify any species that might pose a threat to human health – nor did they determine whether microbes were active, dormant, damaged, or dead.
Edwards says that although the risk is likely to be very low, it should still be carefully assessed. TelledSteffan Messenger, BBC
We don’t yet know the impact of sudden microbe influxes on environmental change. It could have a significant impact on biodiversity and productivity of microbial communities as a whole, as well biogeochemical cycles.
In addition, bacteria and algae that live in cold environments often contain pigments to protect themselves from the sun’s harmful rays. However, these pigments can absorb solar energy and could increase warming already occurring. Rapid glacial ice melt.
While more research is necessary to evaluate the downstream effects on glacial meltwater laden microbes, these warnings are not to be taken lightly. The human thirst for water has been exacerbated by unabated industrial activity. The global water cycle has been reshapedWe are only beginning to understand.
“Over the coming years, the forecasted peak water from Earth’s mountain ice glaciers means that we must improve our understanding of how ecosystems function on the glacier surface.” “Tristram Irvine – Fynn is a glaciologist and study author at Aberystwyth University.
“A better understanding of this picture would allow us to better predict the effects of Climate changeon glacial surface biogeochemistry and catchment biogeochemistry
The study was published in Communications Earth & Environment.
