Occurrence of airborne algae within the township of Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Ng, Evelyn Hui-Ping; Chu, Wan-Loy; Ambu, Stephen

doi:10.1080/00173134.2011.602423

Cited by 18 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Most studies on AAC were conducted in outdoor environments, especially in urban areas including Varanasi, India (Sharma et al, 2006), Cairo, Egypt (El-Gamal, 2008) and Thallasoniki, Greece (Genitsaris et al, 2011). In Malaysia, a recent survey on AAC was conducted in the township of Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur (Ng et al, 2011). To our knowledge, the present study is the first documentation on the occurrence of AAC within the indoor environment in the tropics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Algal propagules have also been detected in the air of the pristine environment of Antarctica (Marshall & Chalmers, 2006). There has been only one previous study on airborne algae and cyanobacteria (AAC) in Malaysia, conducted in the township of Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur (Ng et al, 2011). The cyanobacteria Phormidium and Nostoc were the dominant airborne photosynthetic microorganisms of this township.…”

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confidence: 95%

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A survey of airborne algae and cyanobacteria within the indoor environment of an office building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Chu

Tneh

Ambu

2013

Grana

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This study investigates the occurrence of airborne algae and cyanobacteria (AAC) within the indoor environment of an office building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Samples of air, wall scrapings and soils of potted plants were collected from various sites within the building and surrounding areas. In addition, AAC were collected by exposing a culture medium to the indoor air. Based on the cultured material, 14 taxa of AAC consisting of cyanobacteria such as Phormidium angustissima and Chroococcus minor and chlorophytes such as Chlorella vulgaris and Chlorococcum humicola were recorded. The surrounding areas of the building recorded the highest occurrence (75%) of AAC. Within the building, the highest occurrence of AAC (45%) was recorded on the lower ground floor, an area exposed to the outdoor environment. Some of the AAC recorded were also detected in the wall scraping and soil samples. Areas with heavy human movement appeared to have high occurrence of AAC. Human movement appeared to be an important factor in affecting the dispersal of the AAC.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

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confidence: 95%

A survey of airborne algae and cyanobacteria within the indoor environment of an office building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Chu

Tneh

Ambu

2013

Grana

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“…Studies of airborne algae have been conducted in a variety of locations worldwide, including tropical/subtropical environments (Brown , Carson and Brown , El‐Gamal , Ng et al. , Chu , Woo et al. ), temperate locations (van Overeem , Brown et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies of airborne algae have been conducted in a variety of locations worldwide, including tropical/ subtropical environments (Brown 1971, Carson and Brown 1976, El-Gamal 2008, Ng et al 2011, Chu 2013, Woo et al 2013), temperate locations (van Overeem 1937, Brown et al 1964, Tormo et al 2001, and polar regions of the world (Broady 1979, Marshall andChalmers 1997), and, in general, indicate that cyanobacteria dominate the airborne algae of tropical regions while green algae are more common in colder regions (e.g., Brown 1971, Genitsaris et al 2011, Chu 2013. Our findings, for a tropical region, support this generalization, with 96.4% of the algal OTUs identified from O'ahu belonging to the cyanobacteria, and only 1.5% of algal OTUs belonging to chlorophyte and charophyte green algae.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A metabarcoding comparison of windward and leeward airborne algal diversity across the Ko‘olau mountain range on the island of O'ahu, Hawai‘i¹

Sherwood

Dittbern

Johnston

et al. 2017

Journal of Phycology

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Airborne algae from sites on the windward (n = 3) and leeward (n = 3) sides of the Ko'olau Mountain range of O'ahu, Hawai'i, were sampled for a 16 d period during January and February 2015 using passive collection devices and were characterized using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the universal plastid amplicon marker. Amplicons were assigned to 3,023 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), which included 1,189 cyanobacteria, 1,009 heterotrophic bacteria, and 304 Eukaryota (of which 284 were algae and land plants). Analyses demonstrated substantially more OTUs at windward than leeward O'ahu sites during the sampling period. Removal of nonalgal OTUs revealed a greater number of algal reads recovered from windward (839,853) than leeward sites (355,387), with the majority of these being cyanobacteria. The 1,234 total algal OTUs included cyanobacteria, diatoms, cryptophytes, brown algae, chlorophyte green algae, and charophyte green algae. A total of 208 algal OTUs were identified from leeward side samplers (including OTUs in common among samplers) and 1,995 algal OTUs were identified from windward samplers. Barcoding analyses of the most abundant algal OTUs indicated that very few were shared between the windward and leeward sides of the Ko'olau Mountains, highlighting the localized scale at which these airborne algae communities differ. Back trajectories of air masses arriving on O'ahu during the sampling period were calculated using the NOAA HY-SPLIT model and suggested that the sampling period was composed of three large-scale meteorological events, indicating a diversity of potential sources of airborne algae outside of the Hawaiian Islands.

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“…The highest biological contamination was observed during the first run in March, coinciding with the end of the wet season in this area of tropical Australia. Under these conditions, high air humidity could have acted as a potential vector for microalgae and cyanobacterial cells from neighboring areas (Després et al 2012;Ng et al 2011). In contrast, lower levels of humidity might restrict airborne invasions during the second run performed at the beginning of the dry season.…”

Section: Fig 5 Bioproduct Synthesis Bymentioning

confidence: 91%

First outdoor cultivation of the N2-fixing cyanobacterium Tolypothrix sp. in low-cost suspension and biofilm systems in tropical Australia

et al. 2015

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Tropical N 2 -fixing cyanobacteria offer an attractive alternative for production of biomass and bioproducts with potentially low cultivation and harvesting costs. The present study evaluated the biomass productivity of the N 2 -fixing cyanobacterium Tolypothrix sp. NQAIF319 grown in nitrogen-free medium in outdoor suspension and biofilm prototype cultivation systems in tropical Australia (Queensland). One-week cycles yielded maximum biomass productivitiesestimated based on ground area occupied by single systemsof 45-49 g dry weight m −2 day −1 (suspension) and 1.0-1.2 g dry weight m −2 day −1 (biofilm) with minimal biological contamination (Tolypothrix sp. biomass representing 94-98 % of the photosynthetic community). Moderate productivities of t h e pi g m e n t s ph y c o c y a n in/p hyc oe ryth rin ( 0.1 -2.8 g m −2 day −1 ), fatty acids (0.1-2.0 g m −2 day −1 ), and nitrogen stored in the biomass (0.1-5.9 g m −2 day −1 ) were reached in biofilm and suspension systems, respectively, opening avenues for production of low-value commodities with potentially big markets (nitrogen-rich biofertilizers and a q u a c u l t u r e f e e d ) a n d h i g h e r-v a l u e c h e m i c a l s (phycobiliproteins and fatty acids). Simulated multi-system arrangements yielded theoretical overall areal productivities four to six times lower than those in single systems thus highlighting the need for future tests fine-tuning inter-system separation to minimize shadowing while maximizing the efficiency in land use in larger-scale production plants. Biofilm and self-flocculated biomass showed 80-fold and 53-fold reduced extracellular-water contents compared to suspension cultures, respectively, which will need to be considered for techno-economic and water/carbon footprint evaluation of each of the possible bioproduct synthesis pathways. In conclusion, the flexible and simple prototypes developed together with the good properties of Tolypothrix sp. represent a promising platform for low-cost production of cyanobacterial bioproducts in tropical regions using low nitrogen-containing water sources.

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Occurrence of airborne algae within the township of Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Cited by 18 publications

References 24 publications

A survey of airborne algae and cyanobacteria within the indoor environment of an office building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A survey of airborne algae and cyanobacteria within the indoor environment of an office building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A metabarcoding comparison of windward and leeward airborne algal diversity across the Ko‘olau mountain range on the island of O'ahu, Hawai‘i¹

First outdoor cultivation of the N2-fixing cyanobacterium Tolypothrix sp. in low-cost suspension and biofilm systems in tropical Australia

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Occurrence of airborne algae within the township of Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Cited by 18 publications

References 24 publications

A survey of airborne algae and cyanobacteria within the indoor environment of an office building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A survey of airborne algae and cyanobacteria within the indoor environment of an office building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A metabarcoding comparison of windward and leeward airborne algal diversity across the Ko‘olau mountain range on the island of O'ahu, Hawai‘i1

First outdoor cultivation of the N2-fixing cyanobacterium Tolypothrix sp. in low-cost suspension and biofilm systems in tropical Australia

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Resources

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A metabarcoding comparison of windward and leeward airborne algal diversity across the Ko‘olau mountain range on the island of O'ahu, Hawai‘i¹