1. Airborne Fungi Associated With Dust, their Source Identification and Contribution in the Southwest of Iran
- Author
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Farshid Ghanbari, Hossien Mohammad Asgari, Forough Tajikei, and Isaac Zamani
- Subjects
Environmental science ,Identification (biology) ,Cartography - Abstract
Dust events impose negative socio-economic, health, and environmental impacts in vulnerable areas and reflect physiochemical and biological characteristics of their sources. The purpose of this study was to assess the impacts and contribution of two dust sources on concentration and diversity of airborne fungi in one of the most frequent dusty area in the world. Air masses arriving at study area were assessed using ground wind rose and HYSPLIT model. To explore the relationship between fungi in dust sources and downwind area, the sampling was carried out from airborne dust in Arvand Free Zone as targets areas and soil of dried part of Hor-alazim and Shadegan wetlands as sources areas. The samples were analyzed in the lab to extract DNA, PCR and sequencing. The Raw DNA data were processed using Qiime virtual box to pick OTUs and taxonomy assignments. The most common fungi at the Genus level were in the order of Penicillium > Aspergillus > Alternaria > Fusarium > Paradendryphiella > Talaromyces. The similarity between air and soil fungal genera was investigated using richness and diversity indices estimation, phyloghenetic tree, PCA analysis. results show the ambient fungi community structures in Hor alazim, and Shadegan dust sources were more similar to those on dusty days than non-dusty days. To quantify the contributions of known dust sources to airborne fungi, Source tracker model was used. Results show that the main known airborne fungi sources were the Hor-alazim in dusty and non-dusty days. This study's results can help managers to identify and prioritize dust sources in terms of fungal species.
- Published
- 2021
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