Concentrations of Atmospheric Culturable Bioaerosols at Mountain and Seashore Sites

• Main Authors: Byung Uk Lee, Gunwoong Lee, Ki Joon Heo, Jaeho Jung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-11-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: mountain; seashore; culturable atmospheric bioaerosol; fungal bioaerosol; bacterial bioaerosol
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4323

Concentrations of atmospheric culturable bioaerosols at mountain and seashore sites were measured in field investigations by using a bio-culture sampler. The eastern Korean peninsula was selected for the measurements because of the short distance between the mountain site and the seashore site. Detectable concentrations of culturable fungal and bacterial bioaerosols (maximum 1065 CFU/m³) were quantitatively measured at the mountain and seashore sites. In addition, measurement of bioaerosols was conducted at an urban area as reference data. Significantly higher concentrations of bioaerosols were found at the mountain site. However, several fold smaller levels of bioaerosols were detected at the seashore site (<i>t</i>-test <i>p</i>-value &lt; 0.05).