Microbes Strike Back and Join Us in the Climate Battle

How microbes in glacial waters are quietly fighting climate change

I’m one of those people who always has issues with her belly. Yes, the friend everybody thinks twice before putting too much oil, salt, condiments, or anything like in a dish when cooking for them (thanks, friends!).

While we still don’t know what’s causing these issues for sure, we have a good idea that my digestive flora may have a partial role in this. This is because, growing up, I suffered from almost chronic chest infections, which resulted in many rounds of antibiotics.

Unfortunately, these don’t only kill pneumonia-causing diseases; they also take a toll on my best allies on proper digestion.

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However, once I became more diligent with consuming pre- and pro-biotics, things started importing a lot, letting me live a more carefree life. Indeed, these tinny creatures that you couldn’t even see without an extremely powerful microscope can make or kill a deal.

I have been studying climate change science for many years, and one of the fields of work I enjoy the most is the field of positive solutions and news for climate action. Among them, something keeps coming up: the role that the microbial world, one that often goes overlooked, can have on global climate issues.

Here’s a good example of how:

Extra water in the oceans isn’t the only thing we should worry about when it comes to melting glaciers. That’s because when glaciers melt, they release water and unleash methane, a potent greenhouse gas trapped beneath the ice.

That might sound like bad news in a warming world, but a new study led by Dr. Kristin Strock, an associate professor of environmental studies at Dickinson College, offers some most-needed hope.

As it turns out, glacial rivers and lakes may play an unexpected role in reducing methane emissions, thanks to the help of tiny microbial communities. I love how the microbial world tends always to be the one that saves the day.

But let’s look at what the study did first.

Dr. Strock’s team, including students and researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Wisconsin-Stout, set out to understand how much methane gets released into the atmosphere from melting glaciers.

To do so, they studied meltwater from three glaciers in Iceland, sampling both proglacial lakes (a body of water that forms at the edge of a glacier or ice sheet) and rivers during the peak melt season.

Then, to measure the impact of methane-eating microbes, they incubated water and sediment samples in lab-like setups to track changes in methane levels over time.

This wasn’t a straightforward task, though. As Dr. Strock pointed out, “Studies that span the land, ice, water, and air are rare because it requires an interdisciplinary and full ecosystem kind of perspective.”

Well, that’s exactly what the team ultimately accomplished, creating one of the most comprehensive investigations of methane oxidation in glacial landscapes.

And what did the researchers find?

As it turns out, glacial rivers and lakes aren’t just passive carriers of methane; they actively reduce it through a process called oxidation. This is how it works: microbes in these waterways consume methane before it escapes into the atmosphere.

In fact, in some of their samples, up to 53% of the methane released from glaciers was oxidized before reaching the air.

This finding brings important new information to the climate action conversation as it challenges previous assumptions that methane escaping from glaciers flows unchecked into the atmosphere. On the other hand, it also emphasizes the importance of considering microbial activity when estimating the climate impact of glacial melt.

However, quite interestingly, methane oxidation wasn’t uniform across the different sites. Rivers proved to be more effective at consuming methane than lakes, likely because their faster-moving waters provide better oxygenation — a key factor for the methane-eating microbes to thrive.

On top of that, the study also highlighted variability in methane concentrations across seasons and sites, further complicating efforts to estimate emissions on a global scale.

But let’s put this into the perspective of climate change. What does the study mean to us?

Well, there are some good news. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Thus having some creatures out there doing something to destroy it before it reaches the atmosphere provides a critical piece of the climate puzzle. While it’s true that melting glaciers contribute to methane emissions, this study shows that natural processes like oxidation can mitigate some of the impacts.

But the findings also raise important questions. How widespread is this methane-munching effect? And how do seasonal changes or variations in microbial communities affect the balance between emissions and oxidation?

Of course, answering these questions will require more research across different glacial systems and timescales. But that’s why we like science: it never closes the door to more questions and exploration; it’s an ever-evolving story.

Dr. Strock and her team stress that including methane oxidation in emission estimates is crucial for accurately understanding the climate role of melting glaciers. It’s a reminder that the Earth’s systems are interconnected in complex ways, sometimes offering unexpected buffers against human-driven changes.

We shouldn’t take nature for granted, though.

While the discovery that microbes in glacial rivers and lakes can significantly reduce methane emissions is a reminder of nature’s resilience and ingenuity, relying on these processes to combat climate change is not a solution. This will just buy us some most needed time.

However, this discovery is also an opportunity to refine our understanding of greenhouse gas dynamics and to make more informed decisions as we address the challenges of a warming planet.

We need to shine a light on the unseen processes at play in glacial landscapes. This research bridges gaps in knowledge and provides a clearer picture of the interplay between glaciers and greenhouse gases. And, amid so much catastrophic news about climate change (goodbye to the warmest year on record… yet), it’s a refreshing insight into how the natural world still has surprises to help us navigate these scary waters.