We haven’t seen a lot of snow this year, at least at Yuck Factor headquarters in NYC. That hasn’t ke
We haven’t seen a lot of snow this year, at least at Yuck Factor headquarters in NYC. That hasn’t kept us from being curious about the white stuff. Are microbes involved in these wintry weather patterns?The answer is yes!- Bacteria may actually play a large roll in cloud formation. Researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute gathered 14 samples of snow and rain during storms. “They discovered 67 strains of bacteria in the water, with around 12 per cent of these producing ice forming proteins, known as ice nucleation active (INA) proteins… It is thought the bacteria influence the formation of rain clouds as they alter the temperature at which water freezes.” Read more here!- This article is an oldie but a goodie: “Scientists discover microbes in snows sampled from different parts of the world–and show how microorganisms might be the catalyst”- Just recently, the first molecular-based studies of microbes in snow and on glaciers have been performed on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Small amounts of wind and snow microbes might actually be innoculating the stable communities of Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Actinobacteria on the glacier. They found that “The continuous productivity of stable communities over one melt season makes them important contributors to biogeochemical nutrient cycling on glaciers.” Read more here.Do you know more about the relationship between microbes and snow? Message us or reblog this post with your links! -- source link
#microbiology#snowflakes#winter#science#bacteria#glacier#greenland