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Microbes in the atmosphere (microbial aerosols) play an important role in climate and provide an ecological and biogeochemical connection between oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial environments. However, the sources and environmental factors controlling the concentration, diversity, transport, and viability of microbial aerosols are poorly understood. This study examined culturable microbial aerosols from a coastal environment in Maine (USA) and determined the effect of onshore wind speed and fog presence on deposition rate, source, and community composition. During fog events with low onshore winds (< 2 m s-1) the near-shore deposition of microbial aerosols (microbial fallout) decreased with increasing wind speeds, whereas microbial fallout rates under clear conditions and comparable low wind speeds showed no wind speed dependence. Mean aerosol particle size also increased with onshore wind speed when fog was present, indicating increased shoreward transport of larger aerosol particles. 16S rRNA sequencing of culturable ocean surface bacteria and microbial aerosols deposited onshore resulted in the detection of 31 bacterial genera, with 5 dominant genera (Vibrio, Bacillus, Pseudoalteromonas, Psychrobacter, Salinibacterium) making up 66% of all sequences. The microbial aerosol sequence library, as with libraries found in other coastal/marine aerosol studies, was dominated at the phylum level by Proteobacteria, with additional representation from Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Seventy-five percent of the viable microbial aerosols falling out under foggy conditions were most similar to GenBank-published sequences detected in marine environments. Using a 97% similarity cut-off, ocean surface and fog sequence libraries shared eight operational taxonomic units (OTU's) in total, three of which were the most dominant OTU's in the library, representing large fractions of the ocean (28%) and fog (21%) libraries. The fog and ocean surface libraries were significantly more similar in microbial community composition than clear (non-foggy) and ocean surface libraries, according to both Jaccard and Sorenson indices. These findings provide the first evidence of a difference in community composition and microbial viability (culturability) of aerosols associated with fog compared to clear conditions. The data support a dual role for fog in enhancing the fallout of viable (culturable) microbial aerosols via increased gravitational settling rates and decreased aerosolization stress on the organisms, which may include relief from UV inactivation, desiccation, and oligotrophic microconditions. This study provides a strong case for ocean to terrestrial transport of microbes and a potential connection between water quality and air quality at coastal sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flowing waters receive nitrogen (N) from the surrounding watershed and ultimately export much of this N to coastal waters, which in turn can be substantially affected by these inputs. Although the control of N export is complex, for large rivers among-system variation is predicted relatively well by simple models of human activity. Using data from 249 predominantly North Temperate watersheds that varied in size from 0.1 to over 1,000,000 km2 we examined whether these simple models lose their predictive power at smaller scales. We found that the relationship between human population density and NO3 export becomes weaker at smaller scales, and that for watersheds less than 100 km2, it explains only 8% of the 1000-fold variation in NO3 export. However, NO3 export predicted from a simple loading model related well to measured NO3 export across all scales, linear regressions of log modeled versus log measured export for small (less than 100 km2), mid-sized (100–10,000 km2), and large (more than 10,000 km2) watersheds were all highly significant (P < 0.01) and had r2 values of 0.78, 0.63, and 0.77, respectively. For the smallest systems, however, the model was biased and predicted higher NO3 export than was measured. The bias suggests slightly greater storage or gaseous N loss in smaller watersheds, whereas the light correlation between predicted and measured export indicates that for small as well as large systems, among-system variation in NO3 export is controlled primarily by anthropogenic N loads rather than site-specific variations in soil or vegetation characteristics. Across all scales, however, predictive models can be improved by the inclusion of these local parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and other anthropogenic stressors have led to long-term changes in the thermal structure, including surface temperatures, deepwater temperatures, and vertical thermal gradients, in many lakes around the world. Though many studies highlight warming of surface water temperatures in lakes worldwide, less is known about long-term trends in full vertical thermal structure and deepwater temperatures, which have been changing less consistently in both direction and magnitude. Here, we present a globally-expansive data set of summertime in-situ vertical temperature profiles from 153 lakes, with one time series beginning as early as 1894. We also compiled lake geographic, morphometric, and water quality variables that can influence vertical thermal structure through a variety of potential mechanisms in these lakes. These long-term time series of vertical temperature profiles and corresponding lake characteristics serve as valuable data to help understand changes and drivers of lake thermal structure in a time of rapid global and ecological change., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius L.) are ectoparasitic wingless insects that feed on the blood of mammals, typically in residential settings. The objectives of this study were to establish a time-course of human DNA quantitation from bed bugs and to generate human DNA profile(s) of a host and/or multiple hosts from a bed bug that fed on human blood. Female human genomic DNA concentrations ranged from 18.370 to 0.195ng/bed bug at 0-108h post blood meal (PBM), male human genomic DNA concentrations ranged from 5.4 to 0.105ng/bed bug at 0-108h PBM, and pooled human female and male blood ranged from 5.49 to 0.135ng/bed bug at 0-96h PBM. Human autosomal STR complete profiles were obtained until 72h PBM for female, male, and pooled human blood. These results reveal that identification of multiple human hosts is possible from a single bed bug. However, the ratio of each contributor may be variable depending on the amount of blood ingested from each individual and the time difference of blood consumed from each subject. Average peak heights for three STR markers of low (D3S1358), medium (D13S317), and high molecular weight (D2S1338), were also compared over time. Peak heights were consistently higher for the low molecular weight marker over all time intervals. These data suggest that some markers can be successfully recovered more than three days PBM. Hence, bed bugs can serve as physical evidence in temporal and spatial predictions to match suspects and/or victims to specific locations in criminal investigations., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)