On the Transatlantic Journey of Microorganisms Onboard Aeolian Dust Aerosols - A Statistical Analysis of Source, Destination, Routes, and Conditions along the Way

ALI HOSSEIN MARDI, Armin Sorooshian, Miguel Hilario, Hossein Dadashazar, Hosein Foroutan, Virginia Tech

     Abstract Number: 515
     Working Group: Aerosol Sources and Constituents of Emerging Importance and Their Impacts across Spatial Scales

Abstract
Despite their proven role in the long-range transport of microorganisms, dust aerosols are lesser studied from this aspect. The goal of this research is to investigate the Aeolian dust aerosols, sourced from the Sahara and Sahel regions in northern Africa, and their ability to act as a medium to transport viable microorganisms across the Atlantic to westward regions located as far as the Amazon, the Caribbean and the southeast U.S. Specifically, we study the environmental conditions that dust aerosols experience in their transatlantic journey and their potential implications for survival of co-transported microorganisms. We tracked more than one hundred thousands of individual dust emission incidents via forward trajectory analysis from 2008 to 2021, across the Atlantic, focusing on the strongest dust emissions from northern African source regions during each season. At the downwind regions, we defined two receptor sub-domains and for each, we studied the seasonal trends observed in the number of dust trajectories, associated dust emissions, and ambient meteorological conditions along the trajectories. With our dataset, we investigated the cumulative impact of environmental parameters such as extreme temperature events, moisture content, and UV radiation, and their implications to the longevity and diversity of microorganisms being transported with dust particles.