Research Information System
4th Euro-Mediterranean Conference for Environmental Integration, EMCEI 2022, Sousse, Tunisia, 1 - 04 November 2022, pp.399-402
Recent studies have demonstrated that the amount of specific airborne mold types and their concentrations increase during dust events. This study investigates the effect of long-range dust transport on airborne mold composition between September 2020 and May 2021 in the urban atmosphere of Izmir, Turkey, a coastal city in the Eastern Mediterranean. A total of 136 airborne mold samples, 107 in non-dusty days and 29 in dusty days, were collected. Two different culture media, Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Malt Extract Agar (MEA), were used to enumeration and genus-based identification of the airborne mold. Also, the effects of several meteorological parameters such as wind, air temperature and humidity, as well as particulate matter (PM10) concentrations, on the composition of airborne mold assemblages, were estimated seasonally. To determine the dusty and non-dusty days, several tools such as HYSPLIT Trajectory Model, NASA EOSDIS Worldview, WMO SDS-WAS North Africa-Middle East-Europe (NA-ME-E) and ECMWF CAMS Forecast Model were used. The total mold concentrations on PDA and MEA culture media ranged 49–1400 CFU/m3 and 28–1400 CFU/m3, respectively. Total mold concentrations that determined in PDA or MEA in spring and autumn were significantly higher than those occurred in winter, indicating that seasonal patterns of the meteorological parameters influenced the mold levels and genus prevalence in the region. Some of the mold genera, including Cladosporium sp., Chrysosporium sp., Aspergillus sp., Bipolaris sp., Alternaria sp. and yeasts, were more abundant during dusty days than non-dusty days. The correlation analysis showed a significant relation between airborne mold concentration, wind velocity and air temperature (p < 0.05). However, the relation between the total mold concentration and relative humidity (p > 0.05) was only significant in winter.