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AdEnvironmental8339 t1_ize2bh6 wrote

Reply to comment by vibriojoey in Are there a lot more diseases for land animals than sea creatures? If yes, why? by Bored_Survivor

every drop of sea water at the surface has 10 million viruses and 1 million bacteria... Seriously wow

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like_a_deaf_elephant t1_izezwkc wrote

It's completely believable which is one of those alarms that makes me want a citation.

Edit: I'll do the homework.

1 - "A teaspoon of seawater typically contains about fifty million viruses." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_viruses - Suttle, C. (2005). "Viruses in the sea". Nature

2 - "10 million viruses in a drop of seawater" - https://www.futurity.org/millions-of-marine-viruses-ebb-and-flow/

So it's the low-end estimate and probably accurate enough for trivia and Internet gossip.

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vibriojoey t1_izfenzx wrote

Its been almost a decade since I did undergrad research in marine microbiology so I was definitely trying to be conservative with that estimate :P but I am sure the numbers will vary based on polution, salinity, temperature, current flow and so on.

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like_a_deaf_elephant t1_izfngv2 wrote

Ah no doubt. It's just one of those believable claims that somehow just needs more, y'know? Nothing personal, I assure you.

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FaustGrenaldo t1_izibeli wrote

Just curious as to how a teaspoon of seawater can ' contain' so many viruses. I thought that all viruses need a host to survive? Surely, they're not just floating around in water, right?

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like_a_deaf_elephant t1_izich5a wrote

Well I'm a layman here, but there's the whole debate if viruses are even alive. I'm sure this generalisation is very wrong, but most viruses are fatty capsules of genetic material at the end of the day. They don't really need a host to survive - just to proliferate.

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oily_fish t1_izirodj wrote

They float around until they bump into a host. The majority of those viruses probably infect bacteria

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DentinQuarantino t1_izexa2r wrote

Eww. Unrelated but I have a wetsuit, snorkel and mask now up for sale. I'll throw in a beach towel and some flip flops too. Need gone.

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kung-fu_hippy t1_izfnp0i wrote

In each cubic meter of air, there is between 2 million and 40 million viruses and 1-10 million bacteria. And we breathe about 0.01 cubic meters of air a minute, so it’s not like it’s that much better on land.

Hell, since you’re breathing air through the snorkel, but wearing a wetsuit and mask for the water, you might well get more viruses from air than water while swimming.

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lubacrisp t1_izfjg2l wrote

I mean, there are about ten times more non-human cells in and on you than human ones. There's no escaping swimming in a sea of microorganisms

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mcr1974 t1_izgldm7 wrote

but why do we not feel the weight of those?

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B1U3F14M3 t1_izgmx46 wrote

You don't feel your own cells too. It's simple you always carry them around so why should you feel them. You don't feel the weight of your t-shirt unless you put it on or off because your body most of the time only feels changes in things.

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mcr1974 t1_izgnaes wrote

I mean, more than feeling - why do they not weight on the scale when I get a measurement

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lordfawn t1_izgzwch wrote

They do have weight, NIH estimates 1-3% of body weight https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-human-microbiome-project-defines-normal-bacterial-makeup-body#:~:text=Because%20of%20their%20small%20size,vital%20role%20in%20human%20health.

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mcr1974 t1_iziu3qe wrote

but then how can they be 10x as many cells and only weight 1-3‰? our own cells much bigger /heavier? edit:thinking about it, it's probably due to non-cell weight like water, minerals etc?

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