New York City’s Central Park is as much of a melting pot as the rest of the city — even down at the microbial level. According to a study published Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, more than 100,000 species of bacteria live in the park’s soil — and most of them are totally new to science.
But the results aren’t as striking as they sound: In fact, Central Park’s stunning microbial diversity is pretty much on par with the rest of the world.
Researchers searched soil samples pulled from around the park and found more than 120,000 species of bacteria. They also found 1,659 archaea (organisms similar to bacteria) and 43,429 species of multicellular microorganisms such as plants, fungi, and teeny-tiny critters.
When they compared the DNA of these organisms to databases of known species, they found that more than 80 percent of them were new. And of those that matched organisms in the database, it’s likely that many were just closely related to existing species, and actually represented newly discovered cousins.
We don’t know anything about these new microbes yet, including whether they’re native to New York or came in on the feet of tourists and migrating geese, or whether they’re good or bad for the health of the soil and the city. But we do know one thing: Their uniqueness isn’t actually that unique. (emphasis mine)Read the rest of the story HERE.
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1 comment:
We just came here to Earth most of us aren't more than a hundred years old. Our science isn't that much older. Earth has been here for billions of years and we are just learning about how it survives and regenerates. We live in a vast solar system filled with things we probably haven't even thought of yet or know nothing of. Everything isn't gonna kill you, who knows maybe they are here to help us. Time will tell!
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