With the climate on our planet getting warmer and glaciers melting, the world may be standing on the brink of a veritable viral “spillover” as viruses that currently reside in the Arctic come in contact with new hosts.
Having examined sediment samples from Lake Hazen in Canada, the largest lake north of the Arctic Circle, a team of scientists sequenced samples for DNA and RNA.
“This enabled us to know what viruses are in a given environment, and what potential hosts are also present," Stephane Aris-Brosou, associate professor in the University of Ottawa's biology department, who led the research, said.
The subsequent analysis of viruses found in the lake and of their hosts displayed pronounced differences between them, "which is directly correlated to the risk of spillover," Aris-Brosou warned.
Audree Lemieux, first author of the research, also pointed out that more sediment being deposited in the lake due to an increase of the flow of water from melting glaciers is going to “bring together hosts and viruses that would not normally encounter each other."
The authors of the new study, however, did note that they do not forecast any precise spillover or pandemic, with Lemieux noting that “the likelihood of dramatic events remains very low”.
They did explain, however, that warmer weather creates the risk of new potential hosts moving into the previously inhospitable regions and coming into contact with viruses there.
"It could be anything from ticks to mosquitoes to certain animals, to bacteria and viruses themselves," said Lemieux. "It's really unpredictable (...) and the effect of spillover itself is very unpredictable, it can range from benign to an actual pandemic.”