The study of airborne microorganisms can help mitigate the effects of climate change by helping societies adjust and avoid serious health and food supply issues predicted by global warming models. Scientists at the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering measured fungi and bacteria up to 3,500 meters above the Earth's surface and found that temperature was the single most important factor influencing airborne microbial communities. As temperatures change, the species present and ratio of bacteria to fungi changes significantly. This suggests global temperature increases will impact atmospheric, terrestrial, and aquatic microbial ecosystems. The research generated a "vertical map" of airborne microbes that could affect human health and agricultural crop yields, threatening food security. Studying how airborne microbe communities change can help protect

1. Study of Microbiome Will Help Mitigate Climate Change Effects
One of the great rewards of immersing oneself in a leading-edge academic field is the
moment when all of the theory, knowledge and research breaks through to the real
world, with practical consequences that help improve the lives of people.
That is why it was so gratifying to read a new report that suggests the study of airborne
microorganisms will help societies adjust to climate change, and avoid some of the
more serious outcomes to human health and the food supply predicted by global
warming models.
The study by scientists at the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences
Engineering (SCELSE) at Nanyang Technological University measured microorganisms
up to 3,500 meters from the Earth’s surface, and examined how fungi and bacteria
grow, change, interact and move through the lower atmosphere.
As a Postdoctoral Fellow with research interests at the intersection of environmental
health and patient care, I have studied bioaerosols and the aerobiome for years. Often
great advances in these fields are celebrated mostly within a small international cohort
of scientists and other scholars. In the case of the SCELSE study, the findings tie into a
subject that is of concern to people around the world — observed, perceived and
predicted changes in our planet’s climate.
The study was published earlier this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. The research team used aircraft and a ground-based observation tower to
gather data. According to a review of the findings by Science Daily, the scientists
discovered that “temperature was the single most important factor influencing the
composition of airborne microbial communities. As the temperature of the air changes,
the species found and the ratio of bacteria to fungi change significantly. These findings
suggest that the currently observed increase in global temperature will have an impact
on the atmospheric microbial ecosystem, as well as planetary terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems.”
Team scientist Stephan C. Schuster further explained: “Our research generated a
comprehensive ‘vertical map’ of airborne microorganisms in the planet’s atmosphere. …
If the composition of the air microbiome changes globally, it may affect human health,
exacerbating respiratory syndromes in susceptible patients, or it could affect the yield of
agricultural crops, which then threatens our food security. Natural processes that have
worked for thousands of years such as carbon cycling on this planet may also be
changed.”

2. Although the samples were analyzed in Singapore, the air was collected in Germany, in
partnership with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. More than 10,000 different
species of airborne microbes from the atmosphere above 1,000 meters were analyzed.
Science Daily heralded the significance of the team’s discoveries: “The vertical map of
microorganisms … provides a starting point for future ecological surveys and the
necessary measures not only for the protection of global environments, but also for
agricultural production sites, which may be negatively impacted by changes to the
airborne microbial communities. With the new dataset as a baseline, scientists can also
model and predict the changes in the air microbiome if temperatures were to rise by two
degrees or more.”