Dust from all over the world is landing in the Sierra Nevada mountains carrying microbes that are toxic to both plants and humans.
Research from UC Riverside shows higher concentrations of the dust are landing at lower elevations, where people are more likely to be hiking.
“Pathogenic dust is becoming more of a threat as the Earth gets drier and more parched. As it turns out, you can’t go climb a mountain to get away from it all,” said UCR microbial ecologist Mia Maltz, who led the study.
The researchers detail the types of fungi and bacteria landing from low to high elevations in the mountains in a new Frontiers in Microbiology paper. “Some of these microbes can cause crop failures and human respiratory disease,” said Maltz.
Read more at University of California - Riverside
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