Bacteria In Earth's Atmosphere May Affect Cloud Formation And Climate
Bacteria From Space Georgia Tech graduate student Natasha DeLeon-Rodriguez shows an agar plate on which bacteria taken from tropospheric air samples are growing. Georgia Tech Photo: Gary MeekWeather can transport microbes long distances, and they can promote the formation of ice and cloud droplets. Vast populations of microbes live between four and six miles above the Earth's surface in the upper troposphere, an atmospheric zone considered at best a pretty lousy location for life. They might be living at those altitudes and feasting on carbon compounds that are helping warm the planet, or perhaps they were lofted up there by air currents, according to a new study. Scientists don't know yet how they got there, but they know there are a lot of microbes--and a lot of different kinds, too. "For these organisms, perhaps, the conditions may not be that harsh," explains Kostas Konstantinidis, an assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering...