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Seasonal variability in size-segregated airborne bacterial particles and their characterization at different source-sites

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Abstract

Size-segregated aerosol samplings were carried out near the potential sources of airborne biological particles i.e. at a landfill site, an agricultural field and a road side restaurant-cluster site in winter, spring and summer seasons during 2013–2015 in New Delhi. The culturable airborne bacterial (CAB) concentrations showed significant seasonal variation from higher to moderate in spring and winter seasons and lowest during summer. Highest CAB concentrations were observed at the Okhla landfill site followed by restaurant-cluster area and agriculture site. The CAB particles showed bimodal size distribution, abundant in the size ranges of 1.1–2.1, 2.1–3.3 and 4.7–5.8 μm. However, substantial concentrations were also observed in the size bins of 0.43–0.65 and <0.43 μm, which are important for cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity of aerosols in addition to their adverse health effects. In spring, bacterial particles were also maximized in size ranges between 5.8 and >9.0 μm. Fine mode proportions of CAB were found to be higher in winter than other two seasons. Bacterial identification was done by 16s rDNA sequencing, and most abundant identified strains were Bacillus cereus (16%), Bacillus licheniformis (11%), Bacillus thuringiensis (9%), Micrococcus sp. (7%) and Acinetobacter sp. (9%).

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Acknowledgement

The author is thankful to the Science and Engineering Research Board (a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India) for providing fellowship (SR/FTP/ES-124/2012) under the scheme “Fast Track Proposals for Young Scientists” as well as to the CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Delhi Zonal Centre, for providing the instrumental and infrastructural facilities as host institute to carry out this study. A part of the experimental work of this report was done by Ms. Priya Choudhary as a post-graduate dissertation trainee. Thanks are also due to Dr. Sudhanshu Kumar for his help in air sampling work and Dr. Shankar G. Aggarwal, Mrs. Papiya Mandal and late Dr. M.K. Chaturvedi for their valuable suggestions and cooperation.

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  1. CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Delhi Zonal Center, New Delhi, 110028, India

    Smita Agarwal

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  1. Smita Agarwal
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Correspondence to Smita Agarwal.

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Agarwal, S. Seasonal variability in size-segregated airborne bacterial particles and their characterization at different source-sites. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 13519–13527 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8705-2

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