Abstract
Abstract. Biogenic aerosols are relevant for the Earth system, climate, and public health on local, regional, and global scales. Up to now, however, little is known about the diversity and biogeography of airborne microorganisms. We present the first DNA-based analysis of airborne fungi on global scales, showing pronounced geographic patterns and boundaries. In particular we find that the ratio of species richness between Basidiomycota and Ascomycota is much higher in continental air than in marine air. This may be an important difference between the "blue ocean" and "green ocean" regimes in the formation of clouds and precipitation, for which fungal spores can act as nuclei. Our findings also suggest that air flow patterns and the global atmospheric circulation are important for the understanding of global changes in biodiversity.
Highlights
The number of samples, fungal DNA sequences, and different operational taxonomic units which correspond to species as well as related statistical parameters are listed in the supplementary information (Table S1)
The few samples in which no fungi could be detected were collected on a ship and in coastal regions (Tables S7–S9), consistent with earlier observations and model results indicating that fungi are not abundant in marine air and that the ocean is not a major source of fungal spores (Elbert et al, 2007; Heald and Spracklen, 2009)
The Shannon index (H ), Shannon evenness (E), and Simpson’s index (D) values calculated from the frequency of occurrence of the different species, i.e. from the number of samples in which each species had been detected, are similar to the values commonly obtained for fungi in soil and on plants as well as for bacteria in soil (Maria et al, 2002; Hill et al, 2003; Richard et al, 2004; Satish et al, 2007; Frohlich-Nowoisky et al, 2009) (Table S1)
Summary
The biogeographic distribution of microorganisms is a subject of ongoing discussion in microbial ecology (BassBecking, 1934; Finlay, 2002; Papke et al, 2003; Whitaker et al, 2003; Green et al, 2004; Whitfield, 2005; Martiny et al, 2006; Vos, 2008; Womack et al, 2010). Recent studies have reported evidence for regional distribution patterns of microorganisms in soil and water (Papke at al., 2003; Whitaker et al, 2003; Green et al, 2004; Martiny et al, 2006; Whitfield, 2005; Vos, 2008), but patterns of global microbial distribution remain largely unknown. Recent studies using DNA analysis, suggest that the species richness of BMC may be higher than that of AMC (Hunt et al, 2004; Frohlich-Nowoisky et al, 2009). The question remains, whether the species richness of fungi in the atmosphere is generally higher for BMC than for AMC or if there are biogeographic regions in the air as suggested by Womack et al (2010). We investigate the spread and diversity of airborne AMC, BMC, and various subgroups with optimized methods of extraction, amplification, and sequence analysis of DNA from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (Frohlich-Nowoisky et al, 2009)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
