| Title: | "Can chemical and molecular biomarkers help discriminate between industrial, rural and urban environments?" |
| Author(s): | Garcia-Alcega S; Nasir ZA; Ferguson R; Noel C; Cravo-Laureau C; Whitby C; Dumbrell AJ; Colbeck I; Tyrrel S; Coulon F; |
| Address: | "Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK. Electronic address: s.garciaalcega@cranfield.ac.uk. Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK. University of Essex, School of Biological Sciences, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK. Equipe Environnement et Microbiologie, MELODY group, Universite de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, IPREM UMR CNRS 5254, BP 1155, 64013 Pau Cedex, France. Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK. Electronic address: f.coulon@cranfield.ac.uk" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.062 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-1026 (Electronic) 0048-9697 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Air samples from four contrasting outdoor environments including a park, an arable farm, a waste water treatment plant and a composting facility were analysed during the summer and winter months. The aim of the research was to study the feasibility of differentiating microbial communities from urban, rural and industrial areas between seasons with chemical and molecular markers such as microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs). Air samples (3l) were collected every 2h for a total of 6h in order to assess the temporal variations of MVOCs and PLFAs along the day. MVOCs and VOCs concentrations varied over the day, especially in the composting facility which was the site where more human activities were carried out. At this site, total VOC concentration varied between 80 and 170mugm(-3) in summer and 20-250mugm(-3) in winter. The composition of MVOCs varied between sites due to the different biological substrates including crops, waste water, green waste or grass. MVOCs composition also differed between seasons as in summer they are more likely to get modified by oxidation processes in the atmosphere and in winter by reduction processes. The composition of microbial communities identified by the analysis of PLFAs also varied among the different locations and between seasons. The location with higher concentrations of PLFAs in summer was the farm (7297ngm(-3)) and in winter the park (11,724ngm(-3)). A specific set of MVOCs and PLFAs that most represent each one of the locations was identified by principal component analyses (PCA) and canonical analyses. Further to this, concentrations of both total VOCs and PLFAs were at least three times higher in winter than in summer. The difference in concentrations between summer and winter suggest that seasonal variations should be considered when assessing the risk of exposure to these compounds" |
| Keywords: | Air quality Bioaerosols Chemometrics MVOCs Outdoor environments PLFAs Thermal desorption; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEGarcia-Alcega, Sonia Nasir, Zaheer Ahmad Ferguson, Robert Noel, Cyril Cravo-Laureau, Cristiana Whitby, Corinne Dumbrell, Alex J Colbeck, Ian Tyrrel, Sean Coulon, Frederic eng Netherlands 2018/05/08 Sci Total Environ. 2018 Aug 1; 631-632:1059-1069. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.062. Epub 2018 Mar 16" |
