Climate Change Heating 'Invisible Ecosystems' And Transporting Pathogens To New Areas

There are organisms that are so minuscule that none of us can see them with the naked eye. Such ecosystems are largely ignored because they don't make themselves explicitly visible. Now, a team of researchers has made a startling discovery about how climate change is wreaking havoc on these invisible ecosystems.

Stephen C. Schuster, director of the Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering at Nanyang Technological University was fascinated by how people were catching Covid-10 through air conditioning.

To understand how that happened, Schuster and company started researching the "air microbiome" - a combination of microorganisms in the air. "People make the assumption that there¡¯s nothing in the air because we can¡¯t see it," Grist quoted him as saying.

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Climate change and microorganisms

Now, he has found how changes in climate are affecting these invisible ecosystems. Using sensor technology that has been used by climate scientists for years, Schuster and his team created a "vertical map of the atmospheric microorganisms in the lower atmosphere" - about 300 and 3,500 metres off the ground.

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With temperatures going up across the globe, fungi including pathogens are being shot higher into the Earth's troposphere. Why is this dangerous? Quite simply, the higher pathogens travel, the easier it is for them to reach new territories.

Also read: Earth's Ecosystems Are Reaching A Point Of No Recovery From Climate Change

Schuster fears that tropical microbiomes could move north and south, even potentially reaching the Earth's poles. It means that pathogens will become "invasive" in places where they hadn't been seen so far.

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People are constantly breathing in microorganisms. If harmful ones become dominant in the air, those with compromised immune systems could be at higher risk of developing diseases. What's to be blamed for this? Increase in temperatures, i.e., climate change.

Also read: Organic Fertiliser That's 'Alive' Could Reduce Climate Change, Eliminate Toxins

What do you think about this interesting peek into an invisible world? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Grist. (2022, February 14). There¡¯s an invisible ecosystem in the air ¡ª and climate change is disrupting it.