Seasonal variations in the occurrence of culturable airborne fungi in outdoor and indoor air in Craców
Introduction
As well as bacteria and their resting spores, the propagules of micro- and macrofungi are commonly present in the air. Their presence can be detected in both outdoor air and in enclosed environments, including dwelling houses, workplaces and public buildings such as lecture and gym halls (Medrela-Kuder 1991, Medrela-Kuder 1993a, Medrela-Kuder 1993b). Immediately upon putting an object into service it is likely to be contaminated by the wide range of airborne fungi that comprise the air spora and depend on the climatic and ecological conditions prevailing in that region.
In enclosed premises, the concentration of airborne fungal spores also depends on the conditions of general hygiene, on microclimate, on the occupancy and the use to which the premises are put, and on the concentration of fungi in outdoor air. The external environment is the chief source of the fungi found in indoor air, and seasonal variations in climatic conditions are therefore responsible not only for variations in the number and types of fungal spores in outdoor air but also the air indoors. The concentration of spores in indoor air is usually high during summer, when the numbers in the outdoor air are at their highest (Medrela-Kuder, 1991), but where there is indoor fungal growth that acts as a source of spores, numbers indoors may also be high during the other seasons. This paper reports on an investigation of the air spora at an indoor site and an adjacent outdoor site over a period of 1 year.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Each month during one calendar year in Craców, Poland, six 1-min air samples were taken 2–3 times outside above ground on the roof and inside above floor level in a lecture hall, using a Chirana aeroscope (Chirana, Czechoslovakia; Dolezal et al., 1983; Medrela-Kuder, 1991) operating at a flow rate of and collecting onto a plate of Czapek's agar containing chloramphenicol to inhibit bacterial growth. After incubation for 7–10 days at 27°C, exposed plates were examined and
Results
The seasonal variations in the colony counts for both outdoor and indoor air are shown in Table 1. As expected, the maximum concentrations of airborne propagules were recorded in summer (July–August), when the outdoor mean count was air and in the lecture hall the mean was . In the other seasons (Table 1), the mean indoor and outdoor concentrations were all rather lower, especially in winter (January–March). Further, in contrast to summer (ratio of indoor:outdoor
Discussion
Since no irregularities in the usual manner of using the lecture hall were observed during this investigation, it confirms that the occurrence of Cladosporium was a major factor in the seasonal variation in the number of fungal propagules in indoor as well as outdoor air. In an earlier study of outdoor and indoor air in Craców (Medrela-Kuder, 1991), culturable Cladosporium was observed throughout the whole year, with maximum propagule counts in the summer months. However, in a more recent study
References (14)
- Barnett, H.L., Hunter, B.B., 1972. Illustrated Genera of Imperfect Fungi. Burgess Publishing Company,...
- Dolezal, M., Dolezal, M., Zielonka, E., Zulawa, G., 1983. Wystepowanie grzybów toksynotwórczych w mieszkaniach chorych...
- Domsch, K.H., Gams, W., Anderson, T.H., 1980. Compendium of Soil Fungi, Vol. 1. Academic Press,...
- Ellis, M.B., 1971. Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes. Commonwealth Mycological Institute. Kew,...
- et al.
Daily and seasonal variations of Alternaria and Cladosporium airborne spores in Leon (North-West Spain)
Aerobiologia
(1998) - et al.
Aerobiological study of fungal spores from Palencia (Spain)
Aerobiologia
(1996) Mikoflora powietrza i jej znaczenie dla ksztaltowania warunków higienicznych niektórych obiektów i pomieszczen szkoleniowych AWF Kraków-Czyzyny
Zeszyty Naukowe Kraków
(1991)
Cited by (78)
Fungal diversity in homes and asthma morbidity among school-age children in New York City
2023, Environmental ResearchAirborne fungi and mycotoxins
2023, AeromicrobiologySpring is associated with increased total and allergenic fungal concentrations in house dust from a pediatric asthma cohort in New York City
2022, Building and EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :Alternatively, DNA-based methods and floor dust samples may better capture total fungi indoors, thereby better representing potential exposures which stay relatively stable over a single season [23,26]. Many of these studies also examine trends in outdoor fungi [19,20,22,27], which may not correlate with measures of indoor fungal concentration [20,28,29]. It is also important to note that seasonal trends in indoor and outdoor fungi are not conserved across geographies.
Seasonal dynamics of airborne culturable fungi and its year-round diversity monitoring in Dahuting Han Dynasty Tomb of China
2022, Science of the Total EnvironmentInvestigation of fungal contamination in urban houses with children in six major Chinese cities: Genus and concentration characteristics
2021, Building and EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :Statistical analysis indicated that the difference of airborne fungal concentrations between winter and summer was statistically significant (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.001). Similar results were also reported in several previous literatures [77–79], which revealed that the characteristic of seasonal variation of indoor airborne fungal concentration was evident. One possible reason was that the indoor higher temperature and relative humidity in summer was more suitable for the growth and propagation of fungi [34,80].