Bioaerosol field measurements: Challenges and perspectives in outdoor studies

Abstract

Outdoor field measurements of bioaerosols are performed within a wide range of basic and applied scientific disciplines, each with its own goals, assumptions, and terminology. This article contains brief reviews of outdoor field bioaerosol research from these diverse interests, with emphasis on perspectives from the atmospheric sciences. The focus is on a high-level discussion of pressing scientific questions, grand challenges, and needs for cross-disciplinary collaboration. The research topics, in which bioaerosol field measurement is important, include (i) atmospheric physics, clouds, climate, and hydrological cycle; (ii) atmospheric chemistry; (iii) airborne allergencontaining particles; (iv) airborne human pathogens and national security; (v) airborne livestock and crop pathogens; and (vi) biogeography and biodiversity. We concisely review bioaerosol impacts and discuss properties that distinguish bioaerosols from abiological aerosols. We give extra focus to regions of specific interest, i.e., forests, polar regions, marine and coastal environments, deserts, urban and rural areas, and summarize key considerations related to bioaerosol measurements, such as of fluxes, of long-range transport, and of sampling from both stationary and vessel-driven platforms. Keeping in mind a series of key scientific questions posed within the diverse communities, we suggest that pressing scientific questions include the following: (i) emission sources and flux estimates; (ii) spatial distribution; (iii) changes in distribution; (iv) atmospheric aging; (v) metabolic activity; (vi) urbanization of allergies; (vii) transport of human pathogens; and (viii) climate-relevant properties.

Real-time sensing of bioaerosols: Review and current perspectives

“…Transformative advancement in the development and application of RT bioaerosol sensing will require additional multidisciplinary interaction; thus, the differences in approach, motivation, and funding barriers across communities will need to be overcome. Santl-Temkiv et al (2019) discusses these issues in more detail.…”

“…Many other applications of aerobiology followed within the first half of the twentieth century, including population biology, aero-allergology, and the detection of biowarfare agents (Gregory 1961;Stackman et al 1942). Today, research regarding the sources, properties, concentrations, and diversity of bioaerosol is motivated by increasingly diverse questions and needs (e.g., Burge 1990;Cox and Wathes 1995;Cox et al 2019;D'Amato et al 2007;Fr€ ohlich-Nowoisky et al 2016;Morris et al 2014a;N uñez et al 2016;Santl-Temkiv et al 2019;Shiraiwa et al 2017;Sorensen et al 2019;Womack, Bohannan, and Green 2010). Many applications use the same broad principles of detection, however.…”

“…RT instrumentation has been routinely applied with respect to several broad categories of objectives for studying PBAP spread across a variety of basic and applied research fields. Motivations for this research are discussed in more depth within other articles in the special issue (e.g., Cox et al 2019;Santl-Temkiv et al 2019), but are presented briefly here and in Table 1. Four largely separated categories of PBAP are summarized below as targets for RT detection, each with application in multiple scientific disciplines.…”

The EUMETNET AutoPollen programme: establishing a prototype automatic pollen monitoring network in Europe

“…At least the main allergenic taxa, with possible extension to additional pollen taxa and other particles (spores, air pollution) in future Costs Low initial investment, high personnel costs Higher initial investment, running costs estimated lower or equivalent nature of pollen dispersal (Mohanty et al 2017;de Weger et al 2016;Izquierdo et al 2011;Rousseau et al 2008) means that it is essential that the monitoring network extends across the entire European continent and which is why significant effort has been placed on involving participants from as many countries as possible (see Table 2 for the complete list of current participants). The participation of these groups is also vital since in most European countries, pollen monitoring networks are not operated by NMHSs or other governmental organisations, even if these institutes nearly all issue pollen forecasts.…”

Chemical and microbiological characterization of primary biological aerosol particles at the boreal forest

“…algae, archaea, bacteria, fungi and viruses), fragments or excretions from plants and animals (i.e. plant debris and brochosomes) and dispersal units (i.e fungal spores and plant pollen) (Després et al, 2012;Šantl-Temkiv et al, 2020).…”