Researchers have discovered nearly 1,700 species of ancient viruses hidden in Himalayan glacial ice.
The virus, about three-quarters of which was previously unknown to science, was discovered thanks to pieces of viral DNA frozen in an ice core taken from the Guliya Glacier in the Tibetan Plateau, according to a new paper in the journal. Natural Geoscience.
By analyzing the DNA of these ancient viruses, researchers hope to better understand how viruses adapt to a changing climate.
“Prior to this work, how viruses are linked to large-scale changes in the Earth’s climate had not been investigated,” co-author ZhiPing Zhong, a research associate at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at The Ohio State University, said in a statement. . “Glacial ice is precious, and we often don’t have much of the material we need for virus and microbial research.”
According to the paper, the virus came from “nine horizons, including three cold-to-warm cycles over the past 41,000 years.” The Guliya Glacier, from which the ice core was sampled, is located in the Himalayas of northwestern Tibet, nearly 4 miles above sea level.
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Ancient viruses frozen in permafrost have been found in other locations around the world, including Siberia. This has led to fears that one of these viruses could infect humans as permafrost and glaciers around the world melt due to climate change.
“If the amoeba virus can survive for a long time in permafrost, this suggests that infected animals/humans can remain infected in the same conditions,” Jean-Michel Claverie, a professor at the University of Aix-Marseille in France who led the study, previously said. toward Newsweek. “In addition, we know that DNA (the animal/human infecting virus) was detected in the permafrost.”
Fortunately, this ancient virus is more likely to infect bacteria than animals or humans.
According to the paper, this discovery reveals important details about how these ancient viruses adapted and evolved with significant climate change. One of the viral communities found in the ice core dates to about 11,500 years ago when the climate changed from the cold of the Last Glacial Stage to the warmer Holocene era that we live in today.
“This at least suggests a potential link between the virus and climate change,” Zhong said.
The researchers also found that about a quarter of the viruses in the ice core overlapped with species found elsewhere.
“This means that some people are potentially being transported from areas like the Middle East or even the Arctic,” Zhong said.
By understanding how ancient viruses evolved in response to climate change, researchers hope to better predict how modern viruses will respond to the effects of climate change in the coming years.
“To me, this science is a new tool that can answer fundamental climate questions that have not been answered,” co-author Lonnie Thompson, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State, said in the statement.
Studying frozen life in glacial ice cores won’t be possible forever for the same reason: The rate of glacial melting has increased over the past century, with some glaciers in regions like the Himalayas, Alps, and Andes experiencing significant losses. . Himalayan glaciers are losing 65 percent faster between 2010 and 2019 than between 2001 and 2010.
A 2023 report by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) found that by 2100, between 30 and 50 percent of Himalayan glacier volume could disappear if the climate warms between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius, while up to 80 percent. volume can be lost at a temperature rise of 4 degrees Celsius.
Therefore, researchers hope to collect as much data from this glacier as possible while it is still possible.
“I’m optimistic about what we can do here, because if we work together, these techniques have great potential to help us solve many different scientific problems,” Thompson said.
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Reference
Zhong, Z.-P., Zablocki, O., Li, Y.-F., Van Etten, JL, Mosley-Thompson, E., Rich, VI, Thompson, LG, & Sullivan, MB (2024). The glacially preserved Tibetan Plateau virus community may be related to warm-cold climate variability. Natural Geoscience1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01508-z
