10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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A Study on Biological Constituents of PM1 over Semiarid Region of Indo-Gangetic Basin
ROHINI SINGH, Ranjit Kumar, DEI, Dayalbagh, Agra, India
Abstract Number: 457 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract Air is filled with numerous aerosols with biological origin called as bioaerosol. Exposure to bioaerosols has been linked with climate change and adverse effects on health. They cause toxic reactions and infections, hypersensitivity, asthma, pneumonitis, allergens etc. A few studies on microbial constituents of aerosols are reported but none on microbial components in PM1 (fine particles). The present study deals with mass concentration of PM1 over semiarid region of Indo-Gangetic basin and microbial composition, concentration, and regional diversity. The mass concentration PM1 is in the range of 10-50 µg m-3 which can be considered as high although the standard for PM1 is not set yet. The concentration (colony forming unit per cubic meter) of total microbial components (TMC), bacterial components (BC) and fungal components (FC) are determined and morphological and biochemical characterization has been carried out. The concentration of TMC is well below the reported range 1-1000 cfu m-3. The bacterial concentration is higher than fungal concentration. The Gram –ve bacteria is more than Gram +ve. Coccus is dominant over Bacillus. Some of the identified bacteria are pathogenic in nature. Among fungi the Aspergillus is dominated followed by Penicillium, Torulla, Alternaria, Trichothecium, Mucor, Rhizopus, and Fusarium. The concentration of bacteria and fungi is influenced by meteorological conditions. The correlation and regression analysis reveals bacteria are significantly correlated with temperature and fungi are with relative humidity.