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A new study has recently revealed the fact that climate change may not be to blame only on the polluting activities of the human beings. While it is true that the human inhabitants of our planet have a strong, significant impact on the way climate changes throughout the centuries, the green campaigns against pollution, heavy industry and other things that could affect the nature around us may not target all of the agents responsible for the degradation of Earth. The new study indicates the fact that even the ocean microbes may be responsible for climate change, in some ways.
Even if they are so little that people can hardly perceive them, even by using specialized scientific instruments, the immense amount of such ocean microbes can contribute to the modifications in our climate. It looks like the microbes play a major role in the formation of clouds and from that point on, make themselves responsible for climate change, as clouds play an important part in the modification of our planet`s climate.
This information comes as a complement to previous research in connection to this matter. Approximately a year ago, scientists at the Scipps Institution of Oceanography created a replica ocean. They have proceeded in such a way in order to observe the microscopic microbes which take part in the formation of the clouds. Due to the relevance that cloud formation and precipitation have toward the changes that our climate goes through, such an academic field begins to raise the interest of more and more people as time goes by and new discoveries are made.
You may have never thought about that, but the recent study has shown that the process within which the ocean microbes consume phytoplankton has a major impact on the formation of the clouds. It also affects the properties of the clouds, according the to the recent scientific report.
The microbes in the waters of the Earth consume the phytoplankton and as they do so, the phytoplankton divides into molecules like lipids and fats. However, they do not eat all of their meal, as children should do by the way. Some of the molecules they do not consume, and they become airborne, entering the atmosphere above the oceans of our planet.
Then, these molecules combine with dust and other aerosol particles and create the pattern upon which clouds are formed.
“These chemical changes ultimately affect the reflectivity of marine clouds and thus could have profound impacts on climate over a large portion of the planet.”
said Kimberley Prather, one of the scientists who led the research.
Image Source: Science News
