10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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Presence of Photosynthetic Microorganisms in Clouds
KEVIN DILLON, Pierre Amato, Martine Sancelme, Valdis Krumins, Anne Marie Delort, Donna Fennell, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Abstract Number: 1087 Working Group: Clouds and Climate
Abstract Clouds contain diverse microbial assemblages. Previous work has demonstrated that some heterotrophic microorganisms are active in clouds and have an impact upon cloud water chemistry. Photosynthetic microorganisms (cyanobacteria and algae) were also shown to be present. However, their diversity and activity as primary producers, i.e. as CO2-fixing organisms, is still poorly characterized in clouds. To date, no photosynthetic isolates from clouds have been reported. Cloud water was collected at the puy de Dôme meteorological station (1465 m, France) and used to establish photosynthetic enrichments. Enrichments were initially incubated at 20°C. Once the enrichments were established, they were grown at ≈22°C, 15°C, and 4°C under 75 µE m-2 s-1 of light. These phototrophic microorganisms had a higher growth rate at 15°C, a relevant temperature for clouds, thus demonstrating the possibility that these are active in clouds. This is the first reported culturing of photosynthetic microorganisms from clouds. Current work is underway to obtain axenic photosynthetic cultures and to evaluate the diversity and activity of photosynthetic microorganisms in the atmosphere.