====== Aeroplankton ======

The atmosphere of Earth is permanently teeming with countless numbers of microscopic organisms - including :

  * bacteria
  * viruses
  * fungi
  * algae
  * archaea
  * yeasts
  * spores of mosses, ferns, fungi, etc etc.
  * ( and, in addition, raw DNA and RNA fragments )

It has been called :

>__[...] the least understood biome on Earth despite its critical role as a microbial transport medium. The influence of surface cover on composition of airborne microbial communities above marine systems is unclear.__\\ \\ Source : [[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7031240/|ISME J. 2020 Mar; 14(3): 871–876]]

The number of organisms per cubic metre tends to decrease with distance from land and with altitude. As an example, the density of bacteria alone routinely reach numbers of 10<sup>4</sup> to 10<sup>8</sup> cells per m<sup>3 ([[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896971731149X?via%3Dihub|ref.]])</sup>

Very little is known about the effects of the 'aerobiome' on :

  * Climate change
  * Geological processes
  * Human health
  * Disease proliferation
  * Agriculture
  * Ecology
  * Cloud seeding

Some of these effects are likely to be very profound.

Further information on this very under-researched subject can be found at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroplankton|wikipedia]]

//Note:// In addition to the uni-cellular organisms, there are also significant quantities of small insects, spiders, nematodes etc. etc..

~~stars>4/5~~