Disaster Microbiology-a New Field of Study

Abstract

Natural and human-made disasters can cause tremendous physical damage, societal change, and suffering. In addition to their effects on people, disasters have been shown to alter the microbial population in the area affected. Alterations for microbial populations can lead to new ecological interactions, with additional potentially adverse consequences for many species, including humans. Disaster-related stressors can be powerful forces for microbial selection. Studying microbial adaptation in disaster sites can reveal new biological processes, including mechanisms by which some microbes could become pathogenic and others could become beneficial (e.g., used for bioremediation). Here we survey examples of how disasters have affected microbiology and suggest that the topic of "disaster microbiology" is itself a new field of study. Given the accelerating pace of human-caused climate change and the increasing encroachment of the natural word by human activities, it is likely that this area of research will become increasingly relevant to the broader field of microbiology. Since disaster microbiology is a broad term open to interpretation, we propose criteria for what phenomena fall under its scope. The basic premise is that there must be a disaster that causes a change in the environment, which then causes an alteration to microbes (either a physical or biological adaptation), and that this adaptation must have additional ramifications.

Keywords: bioremediation; climate change; disaster microbiology; emerging pathogens; extreme weather; human-made disaster; microbial adaptation; natural disaster.

FIG 1

Overview of disaster microbiology. Disaster microbiology encompasses a diverse array of disasters, environmental changes, microbial adaptations, and secondary effects. Disaster microbiology includes microbial ramifications resulting from flooding disasters (tsunami, tropical cyclones, extreme rain), earthquakes, tornadoes, dust storms, wildfire, and droughts. Disaster microbiology also includes human-made disasters, which include chronic industrial pollution, nuclear disaster, sewage leaks, and humanitarian and refugee crises. These disasters are shown on the top row of the figure These disasters impact microbes and can disrupt microbial ecology and drive adaptations or alteration of the microbial population, as indicated in the graphics in the middle row. The alteration of microbial communities can then lead to disruption of human health, new ecological niches of microbes, and newly evolved biological processes that can be used in the future for bioremediation. The secondary effects are seen in the bottom row. Created with BioRender.com.