Attack of the "Flesh-Eating" Bacteria

Microbes escaping from melting glaciers can carry genes that evade antibiotics and may transfer those genes to other bacteria, raising the possibility of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Climate change affects more than visible wildlife; it also reshapes the microbial world, the most dominant life-form on Earth. Many microbes support life by producing oxygen, decomposing waste, and helping plants absorb nutrients. Microbes also adapt faster than humans, so ecosystem changes can trigger rapid microbial shifts. Warmer conditions can increase abundance of pathogens such as Vibrio vulnificus in warmer water. Cooler-adapted fungi may remain limited by human body temperatures, but warming could allow them to overcome that barrier. Other beneficial microbes will also change, with unknown consequences.

"One finalist caught my eye: a Polish microbiologist who tracked microbes escaping from glaciers as they melted. These bugs had genes that could evade antibiotic drugs, and she warned that they might pass genetic instructions to other bacteria, creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs."

"Some microbes make us sick. Many others help our bodies to function, and keep the planet running, too. Microbes create oxygen in the atmosphere, decompose waste material, and help plants absorb nutrients. Plus, they are master adapters. If the ecosystems they live in are changing, they will too-much faster and much better than humans do."

"Sometimes, a warming planet means that a microbe will become more dangerous to humans. Pathogens like the "flesh-eating" bacteria, Vibrio vulnificus, are becoming more abundant, because they thrive in warmer water. Fungi, meanwhile, prefer to grow at cooler temperatures, meaning that humans are largely protected from fungal disease, because of how hot our bodies are."

"As the climate gets warmer, however, some fungi may have the chance to overcome that temperature barrier. And many other beneficial and innocuous microbes will adapt too, with unknown, and far-reaching, effects. "Our planet is the test tube," one biologist to"

Read at The New Yorker