Microbes Are Likely Speeding Up the Melting of the Glaciers

As if soaring global temperatures weren’t bad enough, scientists reported this week that microbes are also speeding up the melting of Arctic ice.
National Parks Service
A pool of meltwater on the Root Glacier in Alaska.
The problem lies in cryoconite, the soil-like composite of dust, industrial soot and photosynthetic bacteria that darkens the surface of ice and causes it to melt, scientists from Aberystwyth University in Wales said. As it melts, ice leaves behind small water-filled holes full of bacteria. The sun-loving microbes then shape the pockmarks’ depth and size to get more light exposure, in turn melting the ice even more—a process previously unaccounted for in global climate change models. “It’s only recently that we’ve begun to understand that these cryoconite holes are dynamic, changing in size and shape,” said biologist Arwyn Edwards, who led the study. “In the long term, this contributes to the loss of glacier habitats, and the unique microbial biodiversity living on them.”