Category: Microbes in the Environment
How a Cicada Endosymiont’s Chromosome Got Split into Many Fragments
Microbial Life in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has been largely untouched by humans since the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in 1986. Now over 30 years later, there’s been an abundance of wildlife in the 1,600 square mile zone despite their exposure to radioactive material in the soil and food. Scientists are monitoring animal populations with camera traps set up in this area which have captured an abundance of wildlife on these cameras: grey wolves, raccoon dogs, boars, and foxes. (more…)
How Algae Melt Snow Faster by Turning It Pink
What started off as an unexpected find in the 1800s could now have big implications for climate.
Captain John Ross, a British Royal Navy officer and Polar explorer, embarked on his first polar expedition in 1818. The goal? To find the Northwest Passage, a way to the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic by crossing the Arctic Ocean.
While Ross and his crew had to turn back early due to severe weather, he found something significant off the shores of Greenland in Baffin’s Bay: pink snow known as “watermelon snow” strewn across the ground, streaky and of various shades. (more…)
Acute Oak Decline: A Modern Adaptation of Koch’s Postulates
In the UK, thousands of oak trees are “bleeding,” oozing dark liquid from cracks on their bark. What lies underneath are fluid-filled necrotic cavities that disrupts their life force by impeding the normal flow of nutrients and water. Taking advantage of the weakened state of the trees, are bark-boring beetles, which lay their eggs in the cracks of the bark. These are the characteristic signs of Acute Oak Decline, a disease that can kill a tree within four or five years of symptom onset.
Acute Oak Decline made its appearance in 2008. Now, scientists have found that Acute Oak Decline is caused by a polymicrobial infection – in this case, a simultaneous infection of three bacterial species: Brenneria goodwinii, Gibbsiella quercinecans, and Rahnella victoriana. With the microbes (B. goodwinii and G. quercinecans) and beetle larvae in hand, the researchers were able to replicate the characteristic signs of Acute Oak Decline. (more…)