Deposition rates of viruses and bacteria above the atmospheric boundary layer

Aerosolization of soil-dust and organic aggregates in sea spray facilitates the long-range transport of bacteria, and likely viruses across the free atmosphere. Although long-distance transport occurs, there are many uncertainties associated with their deposition rates. Here, we demonstrate that eve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The ISME Journal Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 1154 - 1162
Main Authors: Reche, Isabel, D’Orta, Gaetano, Mladenov, Natalie, Winget, Danielle M., Suttle, Curtis A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.04.2018
Oxford University Press
Subjects:
13/31
631/158/855
631/326/2565/855
Aerosols
Africa, Northern
Air Microbiology
Atmosphere
Atmospheric boundary layer
Bacteria
Bacteria - isolation & purification
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Boundary layers
Deposition
Dust
Dust - analysis
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Free atmosphere
Life Sciences
Microbial Ecology
Microbial Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology
Organic soils
Rain
Rainfall
Soil layers
Transport
Viruses
Viruses - isolation & purification
Africa, Northern
ISSN:1751-7362, 1751-7370, 1751-7370
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Aerosolization of soil-dust and organic aggregates in sea spray facilitates the long-range transport of bacteria, and likely viruses across the free atmosphere. Although long-distance transport occurs, there are many uncertainties associated with their deposition rates. Here, we demonstrate that even in pristine environments, above the atmospheric boundary layer, the downward flux of viruses ranged from 0.26 × 10 9 to >7 × 10 9  m −2 per day. These deposition rates were 9–461 times greater than the rates for bacteria, which ranged from 0.3 × 10 7 to >8 × 10 7  m −2 per day. The highest relative deposition rates for viruses were associated with atmospheric transport from marine rather than terrestrial sources. Deposition rates of bacteria were significantly higher during rain events and Saharan dust intrusions, whereas, rainfall did not significantly influence virus deposition. Virus deposition rates were positively correlated with organic aerosols <0.7 μm, whereas, bacteria were primarily associated with organic aerosols >0.7 μm, implying that viruses could have longer residence times in the atmosphere and, consequently, will be dispersed further. These results provide an explanation for enigmatic observations that viruses with very high genetic identity can be found in very distant and different environments.
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ISSN:1751-7362
1751-7370
1751-7370
DOI:10.1038/s41396-017-0042-4