Researchers from Spain and Japan have discovered abundant live fungi, bacteria, and viruses at altitudes of 1,000 to 3,000 meters in Earth’s atmosphere. This groundbreaking study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved collecting air samples over Japan to investigate how high microbes could be found and whether they could survive at such elevations.
Previous research has shown that dust particles can travel across continents, such as dust from Africa being carried to the Americas. These particles often carry microbes over long distances. In this new study, researchers aimed to find out how far into the atmosphere these microbes could go and whether they remained viable during their journey.
To explore this, the team chartered a small plane to collect air samples from near the planetary boundary layer. After gathering weather data and analyzing the samples in a controlled lab, they identified 266 types of fungi and 305 types of bacteria through DNA analysis. Many of the microbes were still viable, with the team successfully growing cultures in laboratory conditions.
The researchers discovered that many of the microbes found in the atmosphere originated from soil or plants. Based on wind patterns and geographic location, they hypothesize that most of these microbes had traveled from China, over 2,000 kilometers away.
The team suggests that bio-pathogens could travel thousands of kilometers at high altitudes, potentially serving as a means for disease spread. This finding could have significant implications for understanding global disease transmission.