This would be really a great finding. In my opinion Pseudomonas bacteria are omnipresent. If it would have happened, there would have been no respite from heavy rains in the southern India. I think the micro-climatic changes followed by low pressure zoning causes the same. I have not yet come across any such findings. India is among the 12 mega diverse countries and rich in huge plant diversity harboring billions of microbes. The role of microbial community in evapotranspiration by the plants may have some impacts on condensation which again depends upon the climatic conditions.  

Pseudomonas syringae is a common plant pathogen commonly found among many other bacteria in clouds. It serves as an ice nucleator.

see: Ice nucleation by fertile soil dusts: relative importance of mineral and biogenic components By: O'Sullivan, D.; Murray, B. J.; Malkin, T. L.; et al. ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Pages: 1853-1867 Published: 2014;

Ice nucleation activity of bacteria isolated from cloud water By: Joly, Muriel; Attard, Eleonore; Sancelme, Martine; et al. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT Volume: 70 Pages: 392-400 Published: MAY 201)

The ISME Journal (2008) 2, 321–334; doi:10.1038/ismej.2007.113; published online 10 January 2008: The life history of the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae is linked to the water cycle. Cindy E Morris1,2, David C Sands2, Boris A Vinatzer3, Catherine Glaux1, Caroline Guilbaud1, Alain Buffière1, Shuangchun Yan3, Hélène Dominguez1,4 and Brian M Thompson2

for Pseudomonas aeruginosa in rain water, I do not know any publications. But as this is also a common environmental bacterium, I would expect it to be found after extensive sampling

Thank you for your replies.  

What is interesting to me, is when I view the monsoon satellite images each summer and see these long streaky clouds, like in the image I posted.  These unusual clouds erupting from centers located in particular tropical forests, and look like someone has placed artificial cloud seeding equipment in these locations--so what species are there generating this massive amount of rain clouds?  

I am guessing that by doing DNA analysis on the Pseudomonas in these particular cloud formations, we might be able to trace back the host species?  

Folks, please, relax and specify the Pseudomonas species. Really exciting would be to find human pathogens in rain. The occurrence of soil bacteria has long been confirmed and is nothing new.

Pseudomonas syringae as you mentioned above, and a particular strain that is associated with some particular species of SE Asian and East Indian subtropical to tropical tree species.    

How wonderful it sounds. I can assure you that if such correlation is established, then the great John Milton will come and take back his work of "PARADISE LOST" . He would agree that the paradise is still on this planet and not lost at all.

As a meteorologist, I am inclined to ascribe the formation of heavy rain showers in the area to its orography. Satellite images reveal that cumulonimbus clouds on summer days often develop over the relatively high mountains (more than 2500 meters) in southwest India. The clouds grow to a great height and may drift out over the sea (as smoke from a fire) with the prevailing upper wind. An extra supply of condensation nuclei will make no difference - there are plentyof them in advance. Sorry…

Thanks for your reply.  Yes, when these particular clouds form, the mountain and air pollution as the potential sources must be factored in, but if neither are forming those clouds, why not look into vegetation and Pseudomonas as a possibility?  I am speculating that there are particular tropical tree species as hosts for the most robust rain-forming strains of Pseudomonas on the planet?

Pseudomonas type of bacteria species  is a common ice nuclei (IN) positive bacteria found among many other bacteria in clouds. There are several findnings on Pseudomonas syringae over the globe.  In India, we have collected Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Northern part of India and tested the ice nucleating characteristics of this particular bacteria over Indian subcontinent.

Bio-aerosol like bacteria can be nucleated at higher temperature and lower super saturation value that may helps to initiate cloud glaciations more quickly in terms of precipitation.

see "Study of ice nucleating characteristics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa” A. Hazra, M. Saha, U. K. De, J. Mukherjee and K. Goswami,; Journal of Aerosols Science, vol, 35, pp 1405-1414, 2004."

see "“Parameterizing ice nucleation rates using Contact Angle and Activation Energy Derived from Laboratory Data” by J-P Chen  A. Hazra, Z. Levin, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 8, 7431-7449, 2008."

see "“A classical-theory-based parameterization of heterogeneous ice nucleation by mineral dust, soot and biological particles in a global climate model”, Hoose, C.,J. E. Kristjánsson, J.-P. Chen and A. Hazra (2010): Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, 67, 2483-2503."

Very good comment, Anupam Hazra!

Thank you for your replies.  Any matching of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa in India with the type of ecosystems where the host plants are living (i.e. tropical forests, shrublands, deserts, salt water marshes, agriculture lands, etc.) or traced them back to individual species hosts?

For all of the followers and contributors to this questions, I strongly believe that the future survival of the billion+ people of India and Pakistan will depend on managing two items: 1.) Increasing the rain cloud forming Pseudomonas host plants, and 2.) Replanting the barren areas that are the source of the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud.  

Today the Dust Cloud is covering all of India, causing drought and no rainfall.  Without an increase in the Pseudomonas host plants, along with the management of the Dust Cloud, the Indian subcontinent could potentially go the way of the Indus Civilization from about 4,000 years ago, when they chopped down all of their Pseudomonas-producing host trees to  fire the bricks to build their cities?

There is going to be a battle and a drought going on this week.  between the Pseudomonas-produced clouds from SE Asia trying to bring rain to India, and being stopped by the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud, which is going to fight the clouds and produce drought.  Whatever part of a  country the Dust Cloud occupies, no rain ever falls whilke the Cloud stays there, even if the rain is approaching as a Category-5 cyclone like GONU, the Dust Cloud wins.

Or you could say: a battle between humid and dry airmasses...

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2014/10/05/1800Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=relative_humidity/orthographic=77.26,14.97,1992

Thank you for your email.  Yes, ikt appears to be a dry air mass, but when you overlay the atmospheric dust, then a different picture emerges on the monsoon cloud and dry air mass and Dust Cloud interactions.  Are you or any of the followers to this question, if doing computer climate modeling, including the atmospheric dust as a model layer yet? 

Here are some considerations that may have relevance:

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/massive-african-dust-storm-cooling-atlantic-hurricane-odds-for-early-a

Your discussion is indeed interesting. While working with some communities in Western Ghats the old tribal people mention association of trees and rainfall. They clearly mention that the rainfall is shifting as towards ghats as the villages are getting deforested. They are not aware of role of Pseudomonas in bring the rain. Although I associate trees and Pseudomonas and rainfall. I would be interested in knowing about your research on this topic

So far my research has been matching the particular monsoon rain clouds with the tropical forests that seem to be creating them.  We would need someone on the ground to sample these forests to see exactly which tree species are the hosts, and hopefully help preserve and increase these species, so the whole of India can benefit from their rain cloud producing actions.

 Except for the Western Ghats, these host trees seem to have been eliminated throughout most of India, but from the satellite photos, it seems that a very small number of these trees are hosts to a massive amount of the bacteria, so replanting even of a small number of these trees, could potentially increase annual rainfall in India and Pakistan in areas that are currently experiencing droughts.  

Can you share your publications on this subject. We can explore a possibility of collaboration. We are working in northern western ghats on climate change adaptation project. You can know more about us on www.wotr.org

No publications yet, but have been recording the unusual cloud formations originating from the tropical forested areas of the Western Ghats and off Indonesia like the one shown above, and have been asking a lot of questions on Research Gate at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Craig_Dremann/questions.

The best publication I have read so far on the Pseudomonas is from the Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews "Bacteria in the Leaf Ecosystem..." at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12348323_Bacteria_in_the_leaf_ecosystem_with_emphasis_on_Pseudomonas_syringae-a_pathogen_ice_nucleus_and_epiphyte

It is my firm belief, that the replanting of the Pseudomonas host trees in India and Pakistan is the only possible hope of those countries having normal rainfall in the future, and that planting must proceed along with the planting of the deserts to eliminate the annual creation of the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud. 

In order to survive, the countries of India and Pakistan are going to have to become the most environmentally-aware countries on the planet, because their very lives depend on fixing the broken native ecosystems around them--when most people worldwide  have been unaware that the health of the natural ecosystems have a direct impact on their lives.

Since the loss of the Pseudomonas hosts trees and the creation of the Dust Cloud are both human-made environmental disasters, instead of adapting to the human-caused environmental degradations that are pivotal actors causing droughts and floods, it is time to get significant annual government budgets, to fix those damages?

Would love to co-author some studies with you, especially interested if the specific Pseudomonas host trees in the Western Ghats could be identified?

Article Bacteria in the Leaf Ecosystem with Emphasis on Pseudomonas ...

I would be happy to work with you. I shall consult with my botanist friends and we will see if we could carry out any field work in this regards. Soon we are going to launch a year long study across northern western ghats hence we are in position to carry out some sampling in high rainfall areas of western ghats. I shall be in touch with you on this aspect. And also looking forward to a wonderful publication.

Thanks for your reply.  An image like the one that I have posted above, could be a clue to narrow down the areas where the Pseudomonas hosts are most common?  I use http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/indian/images/xxirmet5n.GIF to gather the cloud images.

I got a clue about the Pseudomonas in the India-Pakistan area and the monsoon from Alexander Frater when he chased the India monsoon in his book “Chasing the Monsoon” in 1987 and wrote a diary of that year.

On June 2 he attended a meeting of Mrs. Das’ anti-deforestration committee, where he writes: …”India was once a sylvan country. When Alexander the Great invaded in 327 BC he encountered dense, close-canopied almost impenetrable forests. But peasants were already pursuing a slash-and-burn policy…Trees play a crucial role in the monsoon cycle. By SEEDING clouds they encourage the rain to fall; by trapping it they help recharge the aquifers and hold groundwater in store for the common good.”

I highlighted the word "seeding", because the Pseudomonas living on the trees creating the monsoon rainfall was unknown by science in the 1980s, but the local people knew something like cloud seeding was going on, from their observations.

Craig

These could be informative. I am not sure since it is not my area of work.

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/20956/1/JSIR%2072(9-10)%20617-623.pdf

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/26050/1/IJNPR%204(4)%20363-370.pdf

http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_091_04_0421_0423_0.pdf

Narayanan

Thanks for the references

These bacteria are found on many plants, but I suppose trees may spread them higher up in the air at lower wind speeds and very locally cause turbulence and usually better water infiltration IF the ground is covered like in a natural forest.  Furthermore, trees tend to grow, and be spared, on hill-tops where rain tend to fall - at least partly due to air is pushed up.

See also:

Microbial ecology and functional diversity of natural habitats

The ISME Journal (2008) 2, 321–334; doi:10.1038/ismej.2007.113; published online 10 January 2008

Morris C et al. The life history of the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae is linked to the water cycle

http://www.nature.com/ismej/journal/v2/n3/full/ismej2007113a.html

Thanks for your references

Craig

I think this is an important and relevant topic. This could be the answer to some politicians of our place who doesn't consider deforestation of mountainous regions harmful; they say even seas get rains, therefore trees are not important!

This should be made public knowledge.

Narayanan

There are many environmental topics being discussed these days, but I think the issue of the humans learning exactly which Pseudomonas host plants are important for creating the planet's rainfall, will be the most critically important environmental discussion in the future.

That knowledge will be the most important information for our species' survival, so we do not accidentally cut down all of the trees and other native plants, that produce our planet's rainfall,  

We humans made that mistake once in the Indus Valley 3,500 years ago, when the trees were cut down to make fired bricks for the 1,000 cities and homes for the five million people of that civilization.  Once the trees were cut down, all those cities were abandoned for so many thousands of years, they were only rediscovered in 1922.

These Pseudomonas-produced raincloud need a new name, because they look very different than any of the other officially named cloud formations.  

I am going to propose as a suffix in the name "Botanics" to indicate that the could are created by life.  Another possibility is "Tree hugger" because it always looks like it is hugging the trees as the Pseudomonas gets airborne, then rises like smoke from the forests.

Bacteria has no role in formation of clouds, bacteria may be present there but they have no role in this meteorological phenomenon. High humidity, temperature and pressures in ambient conditions with other parameters like flow of air, area of cloud formation  play vital  role to form clouds.

Thank you for your reply.  If you read the article from only 5 years ago,  from Discover Magazine,  The article is "Does Rain Come From Life in the Clouds?"

Scientists are making their first forays into the mysterious world of biology miles up in the air. Their startling conclusion: That ecosystem in the sky might influence tomorrow's weather and next year's harvest.

What the Pseudomonas and other bacteria do, is their outside coating is the perfect nuclei for rain drop or snow flake formation.  In California the Pseudomonas has been used for decades to make snow at ski resorts, that you can read about in the article on making snow, under chapter 3.4

It might be valuable for every country that experiences droughts, as India and California have been each year for a while, that all of their climatologists and meteorologists, if they do not know about the Pseudomonas and other bacteria that form our rainfall, start learning about that for the future survival of the people who live in those countries?

The Indus Valley Civilization many thousands of years ago, built 1,000 cities holding 5 million people, but in order to do so, chopped down the Pseudomonas host trees to fire the bricks for their cities.  When that happened, the rains stopped, and every one of those 1,000 cities were abandoned for so long, that civilization was only rediscovered in 1922, and we still cannot read their script.

I would not like to see major parts of India or China have to be abandoned, just because someone cropped down the Pseudomonas host trees upwind, to plant oil palm plantations for example?  That image from BBC on the Indian drought a year ago, with the railroad tanker cars full of water is a very striking image that should take our breath away.

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/apr/07-does-rain-come-from-life-in-the-clouds

http://www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/8935791/Faking_It_The_Science_of_Artificial_Snow.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36089377

It seems like the favored pseudomonas strain, syringae considered favored for ice and cloud formation is also a virulent plant pathogen.

Pseudomonas syringae - Wikipedia

The bacterium seems to be a double edged blade...it kills and apparently it humidifies. There are claims that its use in snowguns might also be a problem downstream.

If you Google "pseudomonas syringae cloud formation" it is the design of the protein coat of the bacteria, which makes it the best cloud seeding material on the planet--many articles on line. Mushroom spores have the same effect, but not on the worldwide scale that the Pseudomonas does. Yes, it does infect our cultivated plants, but that is how it lives on the host plants. Fly and travel to the South American of central African cloud forest and see for yourself.

It looks like Psuedomonas infection is a problem in cool climate vineyards. I link to a Youtube video below.

(572) Bacterial rot of grapevine caused by Pseudomonas syringae - YouTube

I would guess that if pseudomonas is abundant enough to facilitate monsoon rains, it might be visible on the ground as some kind of leaf damage, for instance. Perhaps some plants resist the damage. Might they be the long-lived species? Food crops might be particularly susceptible to the damage. It seems the presence of copper in nutritive solutions might have a protective effect. So...could there be a reverse effect...where there is little copper then Psuedomonas might bloom somehow. Maybe widespread copper in Chile helps Chilean vineyards somehow.

Pseudomonas is rarely common enough in agricultural areas, to be able to produce new rainclouds, as the image above shows the clouds being born in the tropical forests in the Western Ghats of India. In North America, have only seen the type producing clouds from forests and from trees growing along rivers, never any agricultural areas.

Like Covid, there are 23 several different strains of Pseudomonas syringae, some that grow on particular agriculture crops--and others that live on forest trees and are the cloud producers of the planet. There is one that grows on kiwi fruit plants, another grows on tomatoes, another on beets, another on geraniums, etc.

You should get on a plane to South America, and be the first person to find which native trees, are the hosts plants to produce the rain clouds for the forests there?

The world's ecosystems function separate of whatever the desires of the humans are--so if rainclouds need some of our ag. crop to grow on, in order to produce rain for those areas, then that is the natural way the system is supposed to function. If we fight it, by genetically engineering that ability out of Pseudomonas to produce rain clouds with the "Ice-Minus" GMO, we might save out tomato crops from frost, and at the same time stop the production of rain clouds at the same time.

Do the paeudomonas monsoonal streamers from the hills spread a visible plant problem on the ground?