According to a new study, melting permafrost could accelerate the release of ancient pathogens and impact the modern world.
Ancient pathogens have been buried deep beneath the permafrost for thousands of years. However, climate change is causing the permafrost to melt at an increasing rate, raising concerns among scientists about the potential release of these pathogens.
Climate change is melting permafrost, accelerating the release of ancient pathogens, posing significant risks to the environment and humanity – (Image: SCITECH DAILY).
According to Scitech Daily, a global study on the risk of re-emerging ancient pathogens was conducted by Dr. Giovanni Strona (from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission) and Professor Matthew Flinders Corey Bradshaw (from Flinders University in Australia).
The study was published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. In it, the researchers made efforts to quantify the threats posed by the release of ancient bacteria.
Through digital simulation experiments, where pathogens from the past invade host communities similar to bacteria, the team compared the impact of these pathogens on the diversity of the host bacteria with communities not invaded by ancient pathogens.
The team discovered that in the simulations, ancient pathogens could survive and thrive in the modern world. In fact, about 3% of the pathogens even dominated in the new environment.
Approximately 1% of these pathogens showed unpredictably harmful potential. Some pathogens caused the death of one-third of host species, while others increased biodiversity by up to 12%.
According to the researchers, although the risks posed by the 1% of released pathogens may seem small, considering the large number of ancient bacteria that are regularly released into our environment, they pose a risk of causing dangerous outbreaks.
Therefore, the scientific community and humanity as a whole need to focus on researching ways to prevent this risk now.
