Microbial aerosol chemistry characteristics in highly polluted air

Abstract

Aerosol chemistry is often studied without considering microbial involvements. Here, we investigated time- and size-resolved bacterial aerosol dynamics in air. Under high particulate matter (PM) polluted episodes, bacterial aerosols exhibited a viability of up to 50%–70% in the 0.56–1 μm size range, at which elevated levels of SO42−, NO3− and NH4+ were concurrently observed. Engineered or acclimated for both industrial use, bacteria such as Psychrobacter spp., Massilia spp., Acinetobacter lwoffii , Exiguobacterium aurantiacum and Bacillus megaterium were shown to have experienced massive abundance shifts in polluted air on early mornings and late afternoons, on which rapid new particle formation events were widely reported. Here, Psychrobacter spp. were shown to account for >96% abundance at a corresponding PM2.5 level of 208 μg/m3. These observed bacterial aerosol changes corresponded to the PM2.5 mass peak shift from 3.2–5.6 μm to the high viability size range of 0.56–1 μm. Additionally, elevated levels of soluble Na, Ca, Mg, K, Al, Fe and P elements, required for bacterial growth, were observed to co-occur with those significant bacterial aerosol structure shifts in the air. For particular time-resolved PM2.5 pollution episodes, Acinetobacter, Psychrobacter and Massilia were shown to alternate in dominating the time-resolved aerosol community structures. The results from a HYSPLIT trajectory model simulation suggested that air mass transport played a minor role in affecting the observed bacterial aerosol structure dynamics. All the data here suggested that airborne bacteria in the size range of 0.56–1 μm could be extensively involved in aerosol chemistry in highly polluted humid air.