A single species of bacteria could be about to accelerate the melting of Greenland. A photosynthesising microbe from a genus called Phormidesmis has been identified as the guilty party behind the darkening of Greenland.
It glues soot and dust together to form a grainy substance known as cryoconite. As the surface darkens, the Greenland ice becomes less reflective, more likely to absorb summer sunlight and more likely to melt.
And, Dr Arwyn Edwards, a biologist at Aberystwyth University tells the Microbiology Society’s annual conference in Liverpool today, cryoconite holes now pockmark 200,000 square kilometres of the Greenland ice sheet.
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