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Aerobiology applied to the preventive conservation of cultural heritage

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Abstract

This work aims to provide an historical overview on aerobiology applied to the preventive conservation of cultural heritage. Bioaerosol represents a potential risk to cultural artifacts since in favorable nutritional and microclimatic conditions the settled biological particulate matter can develop and grow, thus triggering the biodeterioration. Aerobiology has become an important discipline for developing prevention and control strategies for the biological deterioration of cultural heritage. The most used equipment and methods for sampling in both indoor and outdoor environments (passive-sedimentation plates and active impactor for air, contact plates and membranes for surfaces) will be described. The aerobiological monitoring, always combined with microclimatic monitoring, along with information on the artifact and its conservation status, allows to defining situations of potential biologic risk. All the information and data gathered create the baseline for setting up management protocols, defining tailored corrective strategies aimed at preventing damage to cultural heritage and reducing risks to the health of operators and users. New perspectives for this discipline could arise thanks to (a) the development of user-friendly technologies and instrumentations for aerobiological monitoring and sampling of surfaces; (b) the definition of threshold levels of biological risk to the different types of cultural heritage; (c) the creation of a card of “biodeterioration risk” (international database).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science, University Roma Tre, Rome, Italy

    Giulia Caneva

  2. Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), National Research Council of Italy, Bologna, Italy

    Paola De Nuntiis

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Marco Fornaciari & Luigia Ruga

  4. Central Institute for Restoration and Conservation of Archival and Book Heritage, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Rome, Italy

    Paola Valenti

  5. Central Institute for Graphic Arts, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Rome, Italy

    Giovanna Pasquariello

Authors
  1. Giulia Caneva
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  2. Paola De Nuntiis
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  3. Marco Fornaciari
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  4. Luigia Ruga
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  5. Paola Valenti
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  6. Giovanna Pasquariello
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Correspondence to Paola De Nuntiis.

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Caneva, G., De Nuntiis, P., Fornaciari, M. et al. Aerobiology applied to the preventive conservation of cultural heritage. Aerobiologia 36, 99–103 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-019-09589-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-019-09589-9

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