More than 1,000 organisms unknown to science are found in melting ice

Researchers have unearthed nearly 1,700 species of ancient viruses hidden in the Himalayan glaciers.

These viruses, about a third of which were previously unknown to science, were discovered thanks to fragments of virus DNA frozen in ice taken from the Guliya Glacier Plateau in Tibet , according to a new paper in the journal. Nature Geoscience.

By analyzing the DNA of these ancient viruses, researchers hope to better understand how viruses adapt to changing climates.

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“Prior to this work, whether viruses are related to major changes in the Earth’s climate had not yet been explored,” said co-author ZhiPing Zhong, a research assistant at the Research Institute of Byrd Polar and Climate at Ohio State University. . “Ice is very important, and we usually don’t have a lot of it for microbiological research.”

According to the paper, the organisms came from “nine long-term climates, spanning three cold-to-warm cycles over the past 41,000 years.” The Guliya Glacier, where the ice bombs were taken, is located in the Himalayas in northwest Tibet, about 4 kilometers above sea level.

Ancient organisms frozen in permafrost have been unearthed in other places around the world, including Siberia. This has raised fears that one of these viruses could infect humans as permafrost and ice around the world melts due to climate change.

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“If amoeba bacteria can survive as long as in the cold, this strongly suggests that infected animals/humans can remain infected in the same condition,” Jean-Michel Claverie, professor at the University of Aix -Marseille France who led the study. be told Newsweek. “Furthermore, we know that DNA [of animal/human-infecting viruses] they are found in permafrost.”

Fortunately, these ancient viruses likely infected bacteria rather than animals or humans.

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According to the paper, this discovery reveals important information about how these ancient viruses adapted to changing climates. One of the bacterial communities they found in the ice about 11,500 years ago when the climate went from the cold of the Last Glacial to the warm of the Holocene where we currently live.

“At least this shows the link between the virus and climate change,” Zhong said.

The researchers also found that about a quarter of the viruses in the glacier overlap with species found elsewhere.

“That means some of it could be transported from places like the Middle East or the Arctic,” Zhong said.

By understanding how ancient viruses have evolved in response to changing climates, researchers hope to predict how our modern viruses will respond to the effects of climate change. in the coming years.

“To me, this science is a new tool that can answer fundamental climate questions that we couldn’t answer otherwise,” said co-author Lonnie Thompson, a professor of earth science at Ohio State.

Researching the life of glaciers and glaciers will not be possible forever for the same reason: The rate of melting of glaciers has increased dramatically in the last century, and some glaciers in places like the Himalayas, the Alps and Andes lost a lot. . Himalayan glaciers melted at a 65% faster rate between 2010 and 2019 than between 2001 and 2010.

A 2023 report by the International Institute for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) found that by 2100, between 30 and 50 percent of the Himalayan glaciers may have melted if the climate warm between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celcius, while 80 percent. volume can be lost under a temperature increase of 4 degrees Celsius.

Therefore, researchers hope to gather as much information as possible from these icebergs while they can.

“I’m optimistic about what can be done here, because if we work together, these methods have a lot of potential to help us begin to address many scientific issues,” said Thompson.

Do you have any advice on science fiction that Newsweek should cover? Have a question about viruses? Let us know at science@newsweek.com.

References

Zhong, Z.-P., Zablocki, O., Li, Y.-F., Van Etten, JL, Mosley-Thompson, E., Rich, VI, Thompson, LG, & Sullivan, MB (2024). The Tibetan Plateau’s glacially preserved viral community is linked to both warm and cold climates. Nature Geoscience1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01508-z