Are We Killing the Rain? Meditations on the Water Cycle and, More Particularly, on Bioprecipitation
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Date
2012-01-01
Authors
Cohen, James
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This essay reviews the multidisciplinary science of bioprecipitation, using it as a lens through which to envision integrative options for land use and water resource management in a new light. Bioprecipitation is the hypothesis that microbial ice nucleators, including Pseudomonas syringae, may be highly adapted causal agents of rain and snow. To the extent that land use policies, including pathogenic eradication campaigns, may inhibit the local production of biotic ice nucleators, they may be responsible for ‘killing’ a generative source of rain. Such possibilities should invite major interest in this gathering of field research. Assuming that it contributes to richer comprehension of the hydrological cycle’s dependence on circulatory biota, these findings should help to stimulate assimilative integrated reformulations of land use and water management policies and norms.