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Seasonal variability in bacterial and fungal diversity and community composition of the near-surface atmosphere in coastal megacity

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Abstract

Bacteria and fungi are ubiquitous in the near-surface atmosphere where they may impact on the surrounding environment and human health, especially in coastal megacities. However, the diversity, composition, and seasonal variations of these airborne microbes remain limited. This study investigated the airborne microbes of the near-surface atmosphere in coastal megacity Qingdao over one year. It was found that the sample in summer displayed the highest bacterial and fungal diversity, while sample in winter exhibited the lowest bacterial and fungal diversity. Proteobacteria was the dominating bacteria, and Dothideomycetes was the most dominating fungi in the near-surface atmosphere, which took up 53–76 and 49–78% relative abundance, respectively. However, the bacterial diversity and community composition had significant seasonal variations. These data suggest that a complex set of environmental factors, including landscaping ratio, solar radiation temperature, and marine microorganisms, can affect the composition of airborne microbes in the near-surface atmosphere in coastal megacity. The analysis of the pathogenic microorganisms or opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms existed in the near-surface atmosphere revealed that the relative abundance of pathogenic microorganisms in autumn was the highest. The main pathogenic microorganisms or opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms were Acinetobacter baumannii (accounting for up to 9.93% relative abundance), Staphylococcus epidermidis (accounting for up to 11.26% relative abundance), Mycobacterium smegmatis (accounting for up to 3.68% relative abundance), Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (accounting for up to 5.36% relative abundance), which may be related to certain human or plant diseases in specific environments or at certain seasons. Therefore, the investigation of airborne microbial communities of near-surface atmosphere in coastal megacities is very important to both the understanding of airborne microbes and public health.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (2015ZRB01546),the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31570541, 31170509), and science and technology plan projects for universities in Shandong province(J14LD05), basic research project of Qingdao (15-9-1-64-jch).

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  1. School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Qingdao Technological University, Qingdao, 266033, China

    Ai-ling Xu, Zhi-wen Song, Xiu-lu Lang, Xiang Chen & Yan Xia

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  1. Ai-ling Xu
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Correspondence to Zhi-wen Song.

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Xu, Al., Song, Zw., Lang, Xl. et al. Seasonal variability in bacterial and fungal diversity and community composition of the near-surface atmosphere in coastal megacity. Aerobiologia 33, 555–575 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-017-9489-z

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