Scientists have demonstrated that mineral fragments of phytoplankton “skeletons” can accumulate in the air and serve as centers of atmospheric moisture condensation.
The blooming water, filled with the unicellular algae Emiliania huxleyi, can cover thousands of square kilometers. These free-floating photosynthetic eukaryotes are one of the many representatives of oceanic phytoplankton, which is the foundation of the entire biosphere of the modern Earth. Their number is so great that miniature mineral "skeletons" after cell death form extensive sedimentary deposits.
However, some of these biogenic mineral particles can be carried away into the atmosphere and serve as centers of moisture condensation during the formation of clouds. These are the conclusions of Ilan Koren, a professor at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and his colleagues came from work reported in the journal iScience.
Indeed, coccoliths - the calcareous skeletal plates of E. huxleyi and other planktonic algae - can appear in huge numbers, especially when another viral epidemic is spreading among them. With evaporating water particles, bubbles and foam, they can easily end up in the atmosphere. To evaluate this process, scientists infected plankton with EhV viruses and observed how this would affect the amount of mineral particles in the air of a container with seawater.
At the beginning of the experiments, there were 20 million coccoliths for every milliliter of liquid, but within a few days after the introduction of the virus, their number jumped threefold, and ten times in the air above the surface. Extremely light, they remain in flight for a long time: it is estimated that such particles lose one centimeter of height in an average of 100 seconds - much more slowly than denser microcrystals of salt. All this can lead to the accumulation of coccoliths in the atmosphere.
Limestone fragments of phytoplankton “skeletons” dotted with microscopic pores of complex shape have a large surface, suitable for condensation of water vapor from the atmosphere. With the amount of coccoliths that can accumulate at altitude, they are able to stimulate the formation of clouds - this is another unexpected side of the huge impact that these microorganisms have on the entire planet.
Sergey Vasiliev
