A study shows that glaciers are releasing hundreds of thousands of tonnes ofbacteria.
The researchers said that the organisms being washed downstream could fertilise the environment, but needed to be better studied to identify any potential pathogens.
The rapid melting of the ice by the climate crisis meant the glaciers were dying before our eyes.
New antibiotics may be one of the future sources of useful biological molecule.
The scientists collected meltwater from glaciers in Europe and North America. They found a lot of bugs in the water.
The data allowed them to estimate the amount of carbon that would be delivered to the northern hemisphere over the course of 80 years. The rise in CO 2 emissions is assumed to continue. The mass of microbes would be reduced if carbon emissions were cut.
The glaciers are dying before our eyes, affecting theMicrobes that are there, with implications for us locally and globally. Even with moderate warming, the mass of microbes is huge.
There isn't enough data to understand the value of these organisms. People ask me if there is going to be a pathogen that goes out of control. I think that is a small risk, but it is not a zero risk.
The surface of ice contains thousands of different types of organisms. A lot of new species were found in Tibetan glaciers. The Vanishing Glaciers Project is conducting expeditions around the world to collect samples and assess this flora and fauna.
Prof Tom Battin said people shouldn't be worried about the pathogens emerging from the ice. Most of the ice microbes didn't seem to linger downstream.
Go to down to earth.
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The risk of viruses spilling over to new hosts was higher at locations close to where large amounts of meltwater flowed in.
The new research, published in the Nature Communications Earth and Environment journal, used surface meltwater samples from four glaciers in the European Alps.
In all future scenarios for global heating, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of microbes would be released annually. The pigments contained in thebacteria andalgae protect them from the sun's harmful rays. Warming and the destruction of their icy habitat are caused by the absorption of sunlight.
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