Seasonal and Diurnal Variations of Fluorescent Bioaerosol Concentration and Size Distribution in the Urban Environment

Saari, Sampo; Niemi, Jarkko V.; Rönkkö, Topi; Kuuluvainen, Heino; Järvinen, Anssi; Pirjola, Liisa; Aurela, Minna; Hillamo, Risto; Keskinen, Jorma

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2014.10.0258

Cited by 43 publications

(43 citation statements)

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“…In addition, among the environmental factors, temperature, relative humidity, CO 2 concentrations, and particulate matter concentrations showed significant seasonal variations. Differences in temperature and relative humidity in the two seasons probably contributed to significant temporal variations in fungal spore concentrations (Kang et al, 2015;Saari et al, 2015). Our observations support the findings of previous studies: total fungal spore concentrations were higher during fall than during winter in a Norwegian grain and compound feed industry (Halstensen et al, 2013), and in Ohio, USA, the total fungal spore concentrations were higher during summer than during winter in swine and dairy farm environments (Lee et al, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Fungal Bioaerosol Exposure and its Effects on the Health of Mushroom and Vegetable Farm Workers in Taiwan

Tarigan

Chen

Lin

et al. 2017

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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Workers from specific occupational settings may be exposed to high fungal bioaerosol concentrations, causing detrimental health effects. Therefore, we conducted a study to evaluate the characteristics and health effects of fungal bioaerosols present on agricultural farms. By using IOM inhalable dust samplers, personal and area samples of airborne fungi were collected from five agricultural farms-two mushroom and three vegetable farms. A standardized questionnaire and spirometry were used to evaluate workers' health. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to examine the distributions of fungal and environmental factors among the different farms, and regression analyses were performed to evaluate the effects of personal bioaerosol exposure on workers' health. In the personal samples, the geometric mean concentrations ranged from 4.3 × 10 3 to 3.0 × 10 4 CFU m -3 for total culturable fungi and from 4.2 × 10 3 to 1.2 × 10 5 spores m -3 for total fungal spores. The total fungal spore concentrations differed significantly among the personal samples (p = 0.026), but not among the area samples, from the five farms. The culturable fungal concentrations among the five farms did not differ significantly in the personal or area samples. Decreased lung functions of the workers were significantly associated with the concentrations of total fungi and several fungal taxa such as Ascospores, Fusarium, and Periconia. This study demonstrated that exposure to high fungal bioaerosol concentrations reduced the lung functions of the mushroom and vegetable farm workers. Superior ventilation and appropriate personal protection equipment are required to reduce occupational biohazards.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Fungal Bioaerosol Exposure and its Effects on the Health of Mushroom and Vegetable Farm Workers in Taiwan

Tarigan

Chen

Lin

et al. 2017

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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“…Saari et al (2015) found that coarse fluorescent bioaerosol particles (1.5-5 µm) increased in summer, whereas in winter, these particles primarily existed in smaller particles (0.5-1.5 µm). The snow cover and decreased biological activity in winter resulted in the disappearance of microbes from the coarse fluorescent bioaerosol particles.…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Fungi diversity in PM<sub>2. 5</sub> and PM<sub>1</sub> at the summit of Mt. Tai: abundance, size distribution, and seasonal variation

Wei

Chen

et al. 2017

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Fungi are ubiquitous throughout the near-surface atmosphere, where they represent an important component of primary biological aerosol particles. This study combined internal transcribed spacer region sequencing and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to investigate the ambient fungi in fine (PM 2.5 , 50 % cutoff aerodynamic diameter D a50 = 2.5 µm, geometric standard deviation of collection efficiency σ g = 1.2) and submicron (PM 1 , D a50 = 1 µm, σ g = 1.2) particles at the summit of Mt. Tai located in the North China Plain, China. Fungal abundance values were 9.4 × 10 4 and 1.3 × 10 5 copies m −3 in PM 2.5 and PM 1 , respectively. Most of the fungal sequences were from Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, which are known to actively discharge spores into the atmosphere. The fungal community showed a significant seasonal shift across different size fractions according to Metastats analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test. The abundance of Glomerella and Zasmidium increased in larger particles in autumn, whereas Penicillium, Bullera, and Phaeosphaeria increased in smaller particles in winter. Environmental factors, namely Ca 2+ , humidity, and temperature, were found to be crucial for the seasonal variation in the fungal community. This study might serve as an important reference for fungal contribution to primary biological aerosol particles.

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“…Both the WIBS and UV-APS, in various version updates, have been applied to many types of studies regarding outdoor aerosol characterization. For example, they have been important instruments: in the study of ice nuclei Mason et al, 2015;Twohy et al, 2016), toward the understanding of outdoor fungal spore concentrations (Gosselin et al, 2016;Saari et al, 2015a;O'Connor et al, 2015b), to investigate the concentration and properties of bioaerosols from long-range transport (Hallar et al, 2011), in tropical aerosol Whitehead et al, 2010Whitehead et al, , 2016Huffman et al, 2012;Valsan et al, 2016), in urban aerosol Saari et al, 2015b;Yu et al, 2016), from composting centers (O'Connor et al, 2015b), at high altitude Gabey et al, 2013;Perring et al, 2015;Ziemba et al, 2016), and in many other environments (Healy et al, 2014;Li et al, 2016;O'Connor et al, 2015a). The same instrumentation has been utilized for a number of studies involving the built, or indoor, environment as well (Wu et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic characterization and fluorescence threshold strategies for the wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor (WIBS) using size-resolved biological and interfering particles

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Atmospheric particles of biological origin, also referred to as bioaerosols or primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP), are important to various human health and environmental systems. There has been a recent steep increase in the frequency of published studies utilizing commercial instrumentation based on ultraviolet laser/light-induced fluorescence (UV-LIF), such as the WIBS (wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor) or UV-APS (ultraviolet aerodynamic particle sizer), for bioaerosol detection both outdoors and in the built environment. Significant work over several decades supported the development of the general technologies, but efforts to systematically characterize the operation of new commercial sensors have remained lacking. Specifically, there have been gaps in the understanding of how different classes of biological and non-biological particles can influence the detection ability of LIF instrumentation. Here we present a systematic characterization of the WIBS-4A instrument using 69 types of aerosol materials, including a representative list of pollen, fungal spores, and bacteria as well as the most important groups of non-biological materials reported to exhibit interfering fluorescent properties. Broad separation can be seen between the biological and non-biological particles directly using the five WIBS output parameters and by taking advantage of the particle classification analysis introduced by Perring et al. (2015). We highlight the importance that particle size plays on observed fluorescence properties and thus in the Perring-style particle classification. We also discuss several particle analysis strategies, including the commonly used fluorescence threshold defined as the mean instrument background (forced trigger; FT) plus 3 standard deviations (σ ) of the measurement. Changing the particle fluorescence threshold was shown to have a significant impact on fluorescence fraction and particle type classification. We conclude that raising the fluorescence threshold from FT + 3σ to FT + 9σ does little to reduce the relative fraction of biological material considered fluorescent but can significantly reduce the interference from mineral dust and other non-biological aerosols. We discuss examples of highly fluorescent interfering particles, such as brown carbon, diesel soot, and cotton fibers, and how these may impact WIBS analysis and data interpretation in various indoor and outdoor environments. The performance of the particle asymmetry factor (AF) reported by the instrument was assessed across particle types as a function of particle size, and comments on the reliability of this parameter are given. A comprehensive online supplement is provided, which includes size distributions broken down by fluorescent particle type for all 69 aerosol materials and comparing threshold strategies. Lastly, the study was designed to propose analysis strategies that may be useful to the broader community of UV-LIF instrumentation users in order to promote deeper discussions about how best to continue i...

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Seasonal and Diurnal Variations of Fluorescent Bioaerosol Concentration and Size Distribution in the Urban Environment

Cited by 43 publications

References 50 publications

Fungal Bioaerosol Exposure and its Effects on the Health of Mushroom and Vegetable Farm Workers in Taiwan

Fungal Bioaerosol Exposure and its Effects on the Health of Mushroom and Vegetable Farm Workers in Taiwan

Fungi diversity in PM<sub>2. 5</sub> and PM<sub>1</sub> at the summit of Mt. Tai: abundance, size distribution, and seasonal variation

Systematic characterization and fluorescence threshold strategies for the wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor (WIBS) using size-resolved biological and interfering particles

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Seasonal and Diurnal Variations of Fluorescent Bioaerosol Concentration and Size Distribution in the Urban Environment

Cited by 43 publications

References 50 publications

Fungal Bioaerosol Exposure and its Effects on the Health of Mushroom and Vegetable Farm Workers in Taiwan

Fungal Bioaerosol Exposure and its Effects on the Health of Mushroom and Vegetable Farm Workers in Taiwan

Fungi diversity in PM&lt;sub&gt;2. 5&lt;/sub&gt; and PM&lt;sub&gt;1&lt;/sub&gt; at the summit of Mt. Tai: abundance, size distribution, and seasonal variation

Systematic characterization and fluorescence threshold strategies for the wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor (WIBS) using size-resolved biological and interfering particles

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Fungi diversity in PM<sub>2. 5</sub> and PM<sub>1</sub> at the summit of Mt. Tai: abundance, size distribution, and seasonal variation