There is another reason why climate change poses risks. It could lead to the melting of ancient ice in which are locked up microbes that have not seen the light of day for millions of years and which, if released, could cause new pandemics threatening humanity, warns a new Chinese scientific study.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who published the paper in the biotechnology journal Nature Biotechnology, according to Live Science, studied ice samples from 21 glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau, a high-altitude region between the Himalayan Mountains in the south and the Taklamakan Desert in the north. The research revealed 968 previously unknown microbial species, and analysis of their genomes showed that at least some of them have the potential to trigger new pandemics if a rapid melting of the ice, due to a rise in temperature caused by climate change, releases them from their frozen prison.
This is the first time that the genome of microbial communities hidden inside ancient glaciers has been fully analysed (genetic sequencing). The microbes found are mainly bacteria, but also archaebacteria, fungi, etc. 98% are completely unknown to the scientists, and the great microbial biodiversity within the glaciers surprised the researchers.
Chinese scientists are not sure exactly how old some of these glacial microbes are. Previous studies, however, have shown that it is possible to revive microbes trapped at least 10,000 years ago. A previous study in 2020 had analysed ice cores from a single Tibetan glacier and discovered 33 different groups of viruses within the ice, 28 of which had never been observed before.
The diversity of frozen microorganisms, combined with the increasing melting of glaciers due to climate change, increases the chances of potentially dangerous microbes, especially bacteria, escaping and spreading unknown diseases on Earth, leading to localized epidemics or even pandemics, according to the researchers. There are already indications that some of these unknown bacteria may prove to be highly dangerous to humans and beyond.
Even if these pathogenic bacteria do not ultimately survive for a long time after being released from their glaciers, they may still cause problems, according to the researchers, because the bacteria have the unique ability to exchange large portions of their DNA with other bacteria. So even if the ice bacteria die shortly after their escape, they may still have had time to pass on to other bacteria some pathogens hidden in their genetic material. This gene interaction between glacial ancient microbes and modern microbes can be particularly dangerous, the researchers pointed out.
The Tibetan Plateau may in the future prove to be a hotbed of future epidemics or pandemics, as its glaciers after melting supply fresh water to several large and small rivers, such as the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Ganges and others, which provide water to the world's two most populous countries, China and India. As Covid-19 has shown, pandemics tend to spring from areas with large populations.
But the problem is not only in Asia, as more than 20,000 glaciers exist on Earth, covering more than 10% of the land surface. Each glacier is estimated to have its own unique microbial communities. Satellite images show that since 2000 to the present, the loss of ice from most of the world's glaciers has accelerated, increasing the risk of microbial leakage and causing new pandemics somewhere on Earth.
Source: gazzetta.gr
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