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Climate change leads to deadly bacteria
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Human-induced climate change is behind the sudden emergence of bacteria in northern Europe that cause gastroenteritis, a study in Nature Climate Change suggests.
Warming in the Baltic Sea region has caused an invasion of Vibrio bacteria, a study by scientists from Britain, Finland, Spain and the United States has shown. Representatives of this group of bacteria cause various diseases, from cholera to gastroenteritis.
Bacteria can enter the body both with water while swimming in the sea and with poorly cooked seafood. The study found that when the sea surface temperature increased by one degree, the number of cases of detection of bacteria increased by almost 200%.
Climate change research suggests that greenhouse gas emissions have caused temperatures to rise by about 0.17 degrees Celsius between 1980 and 2010. The Baltic Sea has seen an unprecedented rise in temperature, rising by 0.063 to 0.078 degrees per year between 1982 and 2010.
Bacteria react sensitively to such fluctuations, boldly expanding the geography of their presence. In the near future, scientists expect Vibrio bacteria to appear in new places, because in addition to an increase in temperature, a decrease in salinity is also noted. There is information that bacteria have made themselves known in the cool parts of Chile, Peru, Israel, the northwest coast of the United States, and northwest Spain.