Climate change leads to the appearance of deadly bacteria
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Climate changes initiated by human activities are behind the unexpected appearance of bacteria in the northern part of Europe that cause gastroenteritis, according to a study in the Nature Climate Change.
Warming in the Baltic Sea area caused the invasion of Vibrio bacteria, a study of scientists from Britain, Finland, Spain and the USA showed. Representatives of this group of bacteria cause various diseases, ranging from cholera, ending with gastroenteritis.
Bacteria can enter the body both with water during bathing in the sea, and with poorly prepared seafood. The study allowed to establish: when the temperature on the sea surface increased by one degree, the number of facts of detection of bacteria increased by almost 200%.
Research on climate change suggests that greenhouse gas emissions provoked an increase in temperature of about 0.17 degrees Celsius from 1980 to 2010. In the Baltic Sea, however, there was an unprecedented rise in temperature - by 0.063 0.078 degrees per year between 1982 and 2010.
Bacteria react sensitively to such fluctuations, boldly expanding the geography of their stay. In the near future, scientists expect the appearance of Vibrio bacteria in new places, because in addition to the temperature increase, there is a decrease in salinity. There is information that the bacteria made themselves felt in the cool parts of Chile, Peru, Israel, in the northwest coast of the United States, northwest Spain.
