Man destroys the planet and alters its climate. And the ants, eternal workers, put a patch on it, trying to repair human damage. Small but effective, even able to reduce the effect of climate change on the planet
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himMan destroys the planet and alters its climate. And the ants, eternal workers, they put a patch on it, trying to repair human damage. Small but effective, even able to reduce the effect of climate changes on the planet.
It seems unbelievable but this is what a new study carried out by Ronald Dorn of Arizona State University has discovered. Together with his students, Dorn studied how ants, termites, tree roots and rocks affect the elements.
Rocks such as plagioclase and olivine which contain calcium and magnesium naturally absorb carbon dioxide. The more rocks are exposed, the more CO2 is trapped. But it is also thanks to the ants, which have the ability to significantly accelerate this process.
In the six study sites chosen by Dorn in Arizona and Texas, was discovered that eight different types of ants help to accelerate the absorption of atmospheric CO2 by as much as 335 times compared to areas without ants. But it is not yet clear how they do this. It is possible that such cleansing activity could be due to the microbes in their body. "We do not know if it is directly due to them or if it is the bacteria present in their intestines or the fungi that grow in the colonies", he said Dorn a LiveScience.
The results do not reveal how much carbon dioxide could be removed overall from the atmosphere thanks to the ants but it is certain that the places where they are present have a much higher degree of CO2 absorption than those where there is no colony of ants.
As if they felt the world needs their important cleanup job, the ants have expanded their starting numbers from that of 65 million years ago. And in the meantime, they've been busy removing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
And the work, unfortunately for them, does not seem destined to decrease.
Francesca Mancuso
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