Distribution of airborne pollen, fungi and bacteria at four altitudes using high-throughput DNA sequencing

Abstract

The diversity and composition of bioaerosols in the atmosphere have been studied in the recent years in multiple places and under very different meteorological conditions. Pollen grains, fungal propagules and bacteria are the most studied airborne biological particles, usually individually, and correlated to environmental factors such as temperature, wind speed, rain, air pollution, etc. to understand their influence. However, the effect of the height on the distribution and composition of these bioaerosols has not been properly described so far. In this research, we analyzed concurrently these three biological particles at four different heights (1.5 m, 130 m, 500 m and 1000 m) by high-throughput DNA sequencing. We observed that the atmosphere contains a homogeneous distribution and composition of biological particles regardless of the altitude tested. Only a minority of the taxa is differently distributed. Therefore, we here deduce that the altitude does not drastically influence the airborne bioparticles distribution and composition under similar meteorological conditions. We also studied the co-occurrence between different bioaerosols, finding new potential relationships.