Wikimedia, Jessie EastlandTen kilometers (more than 6 miles) into the atmosphere, a plethora of microbes is thriving, possibly affecting cloud chemistry and playing a role in atmospheric conditions, according to new research published today (January 28) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“It’s the most exciting paper I’ve seen published this year,” said Jessica Green, a microbial ecologist at the University of Oregon, who was not involved in the research. “It contributes significantly to the hypothesis that the atmosphere is alive. . . . The possibility of microbes being metabolically active in the atmosphere transforms our understanding of global processes.”
Previous research on snow and rainwater collected at high elevations had already established that bacteria in the air initiate moisture condensation that leads to precipitation. Some of these microbes secrete special proteins that allow them to initiate ice crystallization, which may affect weather by changing the temperature at which ice crystals form in the sky. But most microbe-rich precipitation was collected from the Earth, and may represent ...
