© Fabian Bimmer / Reuters
In a scientific first, a team of international researchers recorded the number of viruses being swept up daily from the Earth's surface into the free troposphere - the lowest layer of the atmosphere, in which nearly all weather occurs.
The study, published in the International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal, describes the detection of hundreds of millions of viruses and bacteria raining down from the sky on a daily basis.
"Every day, more than 800 million viruses are deposited per square metre above the planetary boundary layer - that's 25 viruses for each person in Canada," study co-author and University of British Columbia virologist Curtis Suttle said in a statement.
Bacteria and viruses are swept up into the atmosphere in small particles from soil-dust and sea spray. The pathogens can be carried thousands of kilometers overhead before being dropped back onto the Earth's surface. The phenomenon helps explain how the same virus ends up in notably different environments.
Comment: Don't forget viruses that come to Earth from outer space:
"Bacteria and viruses are typically deposited back to Earth via rain events and Saharan dust intrusions. However, the rain was less efficient removing viruses from the atmosphere," study co-author and microbial ecologist Isabel Reche from the University of Granada said.
Scientists conclude while the deposits of bacteria and viruses from the atmosphere may have effects on the structure and function of recipient ecosystems, it's not necessarily terrible news, as the deposits could help ecosystems adapt more quickly to environment changes.
Reader Comments
The findings of Bechamp - in which the terrain determined the biota rather than Pasteur's germ theory, may be another of those 'wrong turnings' that are so invested in and built upon that the grave of science is settled by the weight of the corporate investments and regulatory law that then press down upon any movement that challenges the dogma.
Our concept of 'virus' may be too much an anthropomorphic construct that then serves political ends. As such it is merely a form-change for 'evil spirits' - with pharma as the 'protection' - though often the cure is worse than the disease. There is no call to doubt that basic sanitation and nutrition (along with therefore a stronger, more vital and less miserable and downtrodden sense of life in the world) made the most significant difference to diseases of squalor and poverty. Now we have a lot of toxic disease that may be masked or miscast as infections - ie pesticide exposures with zika. We also have developed antibiotic resistant bacteria in our mass production of animals for food - no for profit under guise of food. While the magic bullet of persistent and environmental antibiotics has attacked and undermined our gut biota and therefor life support for us all.
Rather than live in fear of bacteria, virii - and fungi - and therefore fear-framed in the need for protection. We can address the environment at the level of cellular or metabolic health, environmental exposures, toxicity and nutrition. Meanwhile profit driven deceit operates multibillion dollar interests.