Found bacteria creating snow rain

Recently, Dr. Brent Christner, Louisiana State University biotechnology professor, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Montana (USA) and France, found evidence of bacteria. Rain is widely distributed in the atmosphere.

These tiny biological elements have a great impact on the snow cycle, affecting weather, crop yields and even global warming.

Christner's team tested samples of snowfall from many locations on the earth and demonstrated that the most flexible ice nucleus - the substrate that forms ice - is of biological origin. This is an important discovery because ice formation in clouds is essential to form snow and rain.

Dust particles or soot can act as ice nuclei. However, biological ice nuclei are capable of producing frost at much higher temperatures. If present in clouds, bio-ice nuclei can affect the process of creating snow showers.

Dr. David Sands, Montana State University professor of plant sciences and plant pathology, said that bio-snow or bio-snow cycles are often called small groups of bacteria on the surface of plants. They are swept into the atmosphere by the wind, and ice crystals form around them. The water coagulates on the crystal surface, making them become bigger. Ice crystals turn into rain and fall to the ground. Snow showers make the bacteria have a chance to return to the ground. If only one bacterium falls on the plant, they will multiply and form themselves. And so they create repeat cycles themselves.

Dr. Sands and colleagues conducted research all over the world like Montana, California, the eastern United States, Australia, South Africa, Morocco, France, Russia. The results of the study will help scientists find ways to reduce drought in many parts of the world.

The concept of rain-producing bacteria is no longer strange. The use of silver iodur and dry ice to form clouds has been done for more than 60 years. Many ski locations have also used frozen substances containing ice-shaped nucleus bacteria to create snow when temperatures are a few degrees below freezing.

Dr. David Sands proposed the concept of "bio-snow rain" more than 25 years ago, but only a few scientists have considered this issue seriously. But more and more evidence supports this idea.

However, research work will become more and more complicated because most of the bacteria with ice-like nuclei are pathogens for plants. Basic pathogens include bacteria that can cause harm to crops, affecting agricultural crop yields.

Christner suggested that the atmosphere is one aspect of the cycle of infection in plants, because bacteria destroy plants, multiply and fly into the air and are brought back to other crops through snowfall. He said: "The role of tiny biological elements in the atmosphere is often overlooked. However, we have found bio-ice nuclei in snow ice samples from all over the world. The results we find will encourage environmental researchers to start thinking about the role of these particles in snow rain. "

This is the work of many scientific disciplines such as ecology, microbiology, plant pathology, and climate. This is also a completely new research direction, and it is clear that we are just beginning to understand the complex impact of the earth and biosphere climate.