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Microbial aerosol characteristics in highly polluted and near-pristine environments featuring different climatic conditions

不同气候条件下高污染与洁净环境中空气微生物气溶胶特性的研究

  • Article
  • Earth Sciences
  • Published:
Science Bulletin

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in understanding ambient bioaerosols due to their roles both in health and in climate. Here, we deployed an Ultraviolet Aerodynamic Particle Sizer to monitor viable (fluorescent) bioaerosol concentration levels at city centers (highly polluted) and their corresponding suburbs (near pristine) (total 40 locations) in 11 provinces featuring different climate zones in China between July 16 and 28, 2013. The concentration levels of viable bioaerosol particles (BioPM) of >0.5 µm were measured, and corresponding percentages of BioPM% (biological fraction of total PM) and BioPM2.5% (biological fraction of PM2.5) in particulate matter (PM) and BioPM, respectively, were determined. For some key cities, indoor viable bioaerosol levels were also obtained. In addition, bacterial structures of the air samples collected across these monitoring locations were studied using pyrosequencing. BioPM concentration levels ranged from 2.1 × 104 to 2.4 × 105/m3 for city centers [BioPM% = 6.4 % (±6.3 %)] and 0.5 × 104 to 4.7 × 105/m3 for suburbs [BioPM% = 10 % (±8.7 %)]. Distinctive bioaerosol size distribution patterns were observed for different climate zones, e.g., some had fluorescence peaks at 3 µm, while the majority had peaks at 1 µm. Ambient bacterial aerosol community structures were also found different for different geophysical locations. Results suggest that there was a poor overall relationship between PM and BioPM across 40 monitoring locations (R 2 = 0.081, two-tailed P value = 0.07435). Generally, city centers had higher PM concentrations than suburbs, but not BioPM and BioPM%. Indoor bioaerosol levels were found at least tenfold higher than those corresponding outdoors. Bacillus was observed to dominate the bacterial aerosol community in the air sample.

抽象

大气生物气溶胶在健康与气候变化方面的研究日益受到关注。 此项研究主要利用基于荧光检测的UV-APS于2013年7月16至28号对中国11个省市的高污染城市区及相对洁净郊区的有活性生物气溶胶颗粒进行了监测。结果表明,不管城市还是郊区, 有活性的生物气溶胶浓度水平为104-105/m3。对于不同地理位置,生物气溶胶粒径分布显著不同,大部分在1微米处有荧光峰值,但也有少部分在3微米处。室内生物气溶胶水平为相应户外的至少10倍以上, 其中芽孢杆菌在大气细菌中占主导。

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21277007, 21477003, and 41121004), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2015DFG92040, 2015CB553401), and Ministry of Education (20130001110044).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Author notes

  1. Fangxia Shen

    Present address: Max-Plank Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Kai Wei, Yunhao Zheng, Jing Li, Fangxia Shen, Zhuanglei Zou, Hanqing Fan & Maosheng Yao

  2. School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Xinyue Li

  3. Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Chang-yu Wu

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  1. Kai Wei
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Correspondence to Maosheng Yao.

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Kai Wei, Yunhao Zheng, and Jing Li have contributed equally to this work.

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Wei, K., Zheng, Y., Li, J. et al. Microbial aerosol characteristics in highly polluted and near-pristine environments featuring different climatic conditions. Sci. Bull. 60, 1439–1447 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-015-0868-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-015-0868-y

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