The article “Melting Glaciers Liberate Ancient Microbes” describes how global warming and the melting polar ice sheets will release microbes and bacteria from 750,000 years ago into the environment. In the past, the ice sheets appeared to not be able to support life by scientists but have recently been found out to contain an amount of microbe cells that is 1000 times the population of humans on earth. This discovery shows that the ice allows these microbes to store their genes so certain things that were extinct can come back. One concern of the scientists is that as the cells come out of the glaciers they could just turn into compost that generates Methane and Carbon dioxide as they decay which could lead to more greenhouse gas emissions. All of these microorganisms being put into the ocean could mess with the oceans chemistry. The researchers still do not understand how an organism can “sit for 750,00 years in some state of suspended animation”. Scott Rogers, a biologist and professor at Bowling Green University found a living 140,000-year-old plant virus in ice from Greenland. He believes that certain viruses could come back and possibly affect humans, but it would be unlikely for human viruses to be able to survive in the harsh ice conditions.
I think this article was very interesting because I had no idea anything could survive in ice for hundreds of thousands of years. I don’t know how that would be possible because those cells would have almost no source of nutrients or water while the glacier is very cold and frozen.
I think this is relevant to today because it shows how our emissions are affecting the world and it presents a new possible problem with the fact that these microbes could become a new source of emissions in the future if the ice continues to melt.
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=melting-glaciers-liberate-ancient-microbes&page=3
posted for C. Gordon
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