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

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.