Characteristic Changes of Bioaerosols in Beijing and Tsogt-Ovoo During Dust Events

Xiaofei Dong,Bin Chen,Guangyu Shi,Minzheng Duan,Teruya Maki,Bushra Khalid

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2022.795489

Abstract

Dust events moving at high altitudes by westerly wind can transport aerosols from Asian deserts to eastern Asia deposition areas such as China. Aerosols do not include only mineral particles but also microbial particles, which are called bioaerosols, and impact the ecosystem and air environment of the deposition area. For identifying the airborne microbial communities transported from the source area to the deposition area, bioaerosol samples were collected in the typical source region (Tsogt-Ovoo in Gobi deserts) and the deposition region (Beijing in Chinese industrial area) during dust events and non-dust days and the sampling sites were compared. The microscopic observation using DAPI fluorescent techniques revealed that the concentration of bioaerosols increased during the dust events in both the source and deposition regions. For the community structures of airborne bacteria at both sites, the dust-event occurrences changed the structure of the bacterial community and increased the diversity of bacterial communities during dust events. Some specific bacterial populations, such as members of Bacteroidetes, dominated during dust events. There is the possibility that specific bacteria can be maintained for a longer time in the atmosphere and might be transported from the source area to the deposition area.

Highlights

Bioaerosol means biological particles suspended in the atmosphere, and they are an important part of aerosols (Després et al, 2012)
Beijing is in a downwind area of the Gobi Desert and the characteristic of bioaerosols in Beijing may be influenced by the transported dust
We conducted quantitative investigations of bioaerosols collected at the dust source region, Tsogt-Ovoo, and the dust depositions region, Beijing

Summary

Introduction

Bioaerosol means biological particles suspended in the atmosphere, and they are an important part of aerosols (Després et al, 2012). Bioaerosol Characteristics During Dust Events limitation (Rothschild and Mancinelli, 2001), so the sandstorms can carry bioaerosols across thousands of kilometers to the deposition area (Okamoto et al, 2004). These microorganisms (i.e., bioaerosols) may impact the reflection and absorption of sunlight, and affect the formation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nuclear (IN) (Peter et al, 2011; Morris et al, 2011; Sõantl-Temkiv et al, 2020). Asian dust events transport the bioaerosols including bacteria as well as mineral particles from Asian desert regions and influence the airborne bacterial communities in downwind areas (Maki et al, 2017b). The release and transport of dust in this region could have a significant impact on the quality of air and the global geochemical cycle (Chen et al, 2017)

Methods

Results

Conclusion