Climate change facilitates bacterial spread in Northern Europe

According to the latest announcement from the UK, Finland, Spain and the United States, climate change is the cause behind an abnormal explosion of a group of bacteria that causes gastroenteritis. Nordic region.

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To demonstrate, initially, the team led to a coincidence between the warming patterns of the Baltic Sea and the occurrence of Vibrio strains - bacteria that normally only develop in tropical, warm - when two happen simultaneously in Northern Europe.

The Baltic Sea is heating up due to the effects of climate change

By examining records of water temperature, satellite data and statistics on Vibrio infections in the Baltic region, the team discovered a close relationship between quantity and distribution. cases of Baltic infections and sea surface temperature rise, in particular: each year the temperature increases by 1 degree Celsius, while the number of Vibrio infections increases by nearly 200%.

Climate studies show that the increase in greenhouse gas emissions has caused the Earth's surface temperature to increase by 0.17 degrees Celsius every decade from 1980 to 2010. The reason for the research team focusing on the Baltic Sea because it has an unprecedented increase in temperature due to climate change: from 1982 to 2010, the average annual temperature increased from 0.063 to 0.078 degrees C (equivalent to an increase from 6.3 - 7.8 degrees Celsius / century).

Bacteria proliferate in conditions of warm seawater and low salt. In addition to the warming phenomenon, climate change also increases the frequency of rainfall and rainfall, leading to a reduction in salt content in coastal estuaries and wetlands. Therefore, when ocean temperatures continue to increase in combination with less saline northern coastal areas, the Vibrio strain will be more widely dispersed.

And in fact, Vibrio bacteria have also appeared in temperate regions or cold regions such as Chile, Peru, Israel, Northwestern United States, Pacific Ocean, Northwest Spain .

Predicting climate change will also facilitate the proliferation of other dangerous infectious diseases, the team is working hard to understand the true relationship between them to provide more understanding for the community and scientists.