There’s an invisible ecosystem in the air and climate change is disrupting it
Author: Zoya Teirstein
Schuster and a team of researchers in Singapore published a study shedding new light on the air microbiome - the puzzling and complicated combination of microorganisms in the air. If this is your first time hearing the term “air microbiome,” you’re not alone. But there is an entire ecosystem in the air, just like there are terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems teeming with life across the planet. “With climate change, the fungi are now being transpod to a higher and higher level” within the troposphere, Schuster explained. As the planet warms, Schuster’s research suggests that those tropical air microbiomes could move north and south. Eventually, they might even reach the Earth’s poles, Schuster said. “This will mean that plant and animal pathogens will become invasive in regions where they are currently not seen,” he added.