The Subsystem Effect: Microorganisms Take Climate Change to Unforeseen Dimensions

Dr. Don Perovich Cryosphere and Terrestrial Sciences Branch ERDC 

Scientists of GEMOAR travelled to the Arctic to study life inside Arctic Melt Ponds and came across an astonishing discovery. According to their new study published in the International Journal Scientific Reports the life found in these Melt Ponds are inducing cloud formation over the Arctic. Meanwhile in the distant Virginia US NASA is poised to launch PACE a new Mission to understand what massive ocean microorganisms are doing globally in the face of climate change. The findings could rock the sector of Climate Change. 

On June 7 GEOMAR reported that researchers were studying how small marine particles behave when the face global climate. Taking on ground samples scientists began unraveling a postive feedback chain reaction.

GEOMAR is the first organisation to study the compounds present in Arctic Melt Ponds with this type of focus. 

GEOMAR study says that the smallest elements of this global postive feedback cycle are in fact driving Climate Change and Ice Retreat. These small microorganism play a major role in this climate change machinery which humans are now trying to put in neutral and reverse. 

It is not new to hear about small organisms which drive Global cycles. We have heard about microorganisms such as plankton before and how they affect the weather but GEOMAR study has new deep significations.  

Scientists found that the microorganisms living in the Melt Ponds are those which live in the Arctic Sea environment and have among their survival strategy the ability to release a protective layer to withstand extreme conditions. The protective layer that these microorganisms release are made up of organic compounds and extracellular polymers and when these interact with the air and water caused by ice retreat they induce cloud formation above the Arctic. Clouds in turn cause a “blanket” effect which heats up things and generates even more meltdown which generates more Melt Ponds which in turn creates more organic polymer reactions and feeds the postive feedback cycle. 

This is a entire new and different approach to Global Climate Change. Before it was believed that only atmospheric temperature changes and Albedo Effects drove climate change and ice meltdown and more recently new studies showed that it was not only the heat of the atmosphere affecting the ice sheets but also the heat of the oceans which affected the ice sheets. Now GEOMAR assures that within the core of this postive feedback cycle microorganisms are playing another major role contributing to cloud formation.  NASA working on a different project reached similar conclusions and will be launching PACE to deepen our understanding. 

“Arctic Sea Ice seems to be hostile to life, but it is home to a wide variety of microorganisms such as algae and bacteria. To withstand these extreme conditions these organisms adopt smart survival strategies, for example by releasing a protective layer of extracellular polymers that includes carbohydrates and proteins. They live protected in this polymeric matrix,” GEOMAR explained. 

Researchers from GEOMAR -the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research soon started focusing on the the organic compounds and they found that they “may” be inducing clouds over the region. 

An organic compound changes state due to temperature and pressure. It may go from liquid to gas to solid. Extreme temperatures such as those found in the Artic sure affect the state of the compounds. Because microorganism in the Arctic region are incredibly numerous the process of organic compounds that they produce is also massive. Basically it is like having a massive amount of “frozen” or “liquid” material that when superheated by climate change reacts and turns into “gas”.

It is like cutting a small hole in an inflated balloon filled with gas...in this case the balloon is massive and found inside the Arctic. Scientists have seen similar situations which happen on daily basis in the ocean. The Carbon Pump is one of these examples in which organic processes are able to store and cycle massive amounts of Carbon in the Ocean. Upsetting the balance of these cycles has global consequences.  

“Our study shows that Sea Ice melting may be a source for  biopolymers in the sea surface microlayer. Emitted to the atmosphere, these compounds may have a great impact on the formation of clouds“, Professor Anja Engel -Senior Scientist of the GEOMAR study said. 

GEOMAR scientists did not reach rush nor jump to conclusions. In fact the study released these past days is actually a reflection of years of work which began in 2012 when the Arctic Sea experienced its minimal registered extension in history with only 34.1 million square kilometers. On that year GEOMAR scientists onboard the RV Polarstern set sail with the AWI Joint IceArc Expedition to record the changes happening in the Central Arctic Ocean. 

“Changes in the Arctic Ocean are visible year after year; the summer traveller reaching the Central Arctic Ocean assists to a myriad of small and big, shallow and deep holes in the progressively thinning ice. These holes are called melt ponds and are effectively new environments for any form of life within the ice. During our cruise we sampled these melt ponds as well as open water at the ice edge or among the ice floes,” Dr. Luisa Galgani  First Author of the study explained. 

“Organic compounds accumulating in this interface may represent a substantial reservoir for the formation of primary organic aerosols POA. In the high Arctic, cloud cover and aerosols influence the capacity of sea ice to reflect or absorb solar radiation, therefore influencing ice melting or freezing,” GEOMAR ended the conclusions backing it up with raw in situ science. 

NASA -also working closely on the very same situation is on the edge of making new breakthroughs in the field. NASA studies clouds and role of clouds in various programs but three are of special interest under new developments; CALIPSO, CloudSat and PACE. 

“It is not news that Earth has been warming rapidly over the last 100 years as greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere. But not all warming has been happening equally rapidly everywhere. Temperatures in the Arctic, for example, are rising much faster than the rest of the planet,” NASA explains. 

Patrick Taylor -Atmospheric Scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center assures that clouds are one of the main factors for the Arctic's rapid warming. Taylor worked with CALIPSO and CloudSat missions and using the enhanced data of both programs reached saw the bigger picture. 

"The unique ability of CALIPSO and CloudSat instruments to provide very accurate knowledge of the vertical distribution of clouds was critical to this study," Taylor said.

"If the clouds were to increase in summer, that would then slow down the rate of melting," Taylor said. "That has been the thinking for a lot of years."

However, Taylor has been finding that the role of clouds and sea ice for Arctic climate change may be more complex than previously hypothesized. 

“Clouds are a two-edged sword when it comes to climate change. They have both cooling and warming effects not just in the Arctic but across the entire planet. During the day, white and bright clouds reflect part of the sunlight hitting the planet back into space. At night, however, they act as a blanket that doesn't completely allow day-accumulated heat to escape into space,” Taylor explained. 

"If you think about cold winter nights, normally the coldest ones we get have clear skies," Taylor said. "But if you have winter nights that actually have clouds, those tend to be a little warmer."

In the Arctic, this “blanket” warming effect of clouds could influence sea ice during fall and winter, when the sun disappears for months and darker skies take over the environment which falls into an entire summer absorbing sunlight.

NASA may be having new information and new answers on clouds and climate change very soon. NASA is in the final stages of the PACE mission development program. “The PACE Mission will uncover new information about the health of the Oceans,” NASA assured. 

NASA communicated on July 20 that the NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem PACE Mission is a first-of-its-kind project that aims to answer key questions about the consequences of climate change on the health of our oceans and their relationship with airborne particles and clouds. 

“PACE represents a major effort to truly combine ocean research with atmospheric research,” Project Scientist Jeremy Werdell said. 

“We are going to go beyond just seeing that Earth’s climate is changing to better understanding why the change is occurring,” Werdell assured.

Using complex and latest technology PACE will focus on another small organism which due to its great numbers affects the entire cycles of our Planet, that is right, Phytoplankton. 

PACE will “examine and monitor how phytoplankton communities in the ocean are changing in space and time”. 

Precise measurements of the ocean surface will allow researchers to envision the concentrations of different phytoplankton communities all over the Globe. The instrumentations which NASA will use in PACE are so complex that they will be able to distinguish between different species of phytoplankton from miles above. 

“Phytoplankton play an essential role in ocean ecosystems. They are the base of the marine food chain and, like land plants, produce much of the oxygen we breathe and play a role in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. With growing concern about the impact of rising global temperatures on our oceans, PACE data will be used to unveil new information about changing patterns in phytoplankton composition and the emergence of potentially harmful algal blooms,” NASA added.  

PACE is now in preliminary planning at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. 

Although completely unconnected to PACE, GEOMAR Scientists -like thousands of other International Experts now agree that small microorganisms are playing a vital role in climate change, perhaps even more than temperature alone. 

Things are not just heating up but in this heat up process organic elements of life are changing and this change could release massive amounts of fixated reservoirs of elements into the oceans, waterways, land and atmosphere taking us into a new unforeseen dimension.

New ways of thinking are required to understand new discoveries. When it comes to climate change we are well past the Albedo Effect and submerged into a playoff of bio-chemical reactions led by the smallest and most numerous organisms on this -our Planet. 

“We are just beginning to explore the role of microbial processes in climate relevant interactions between the upper ocean and lower atmosphere. This is an urgent task, given that microbial processes are highly sensitive to Global Change,”  Professor Anja Engel of GEOMAR warned.