Tens of thousands of microbes have been found in each milliliter of collected surface meltwaters from eight European and North American glaciers plus two sites on Greenland’s ice cap, with many thousands inhabiting the ice surface. Future global heating means hundreds of thousands of tons of microbes released every year. With modest rise in CO2 emissions, estimated bacteria and algae flushed out would add roughly 650,000 tons of carbon a year for the next 80 years in the northern hemisphere, excluding the Himalaya Hindu Kush region (not sampled). Cutting emissions would reduce released microbes by about a third. Yet another good reason to take action.
www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/17/microbes-melting-glaciers-bacteria-ecosystems