Large-Scale Dust–Bioaerosol Field Observations in East Asia

Abstract The long-range transport of bioaerosols by dust events significantly impacts ecological and meteorological networks of the atmosphere, biosphere, and anthroposphere. Bioaerosols not only cause significant public health risks, but also act as efficient ice nuclei for inducing cloud formation and precipitation in the hydrological cycle. To establish risk management for bioaerosol impacts on the Earth system, a large-scale investigation of bioaerosols must be performed under different environmental conditions. For this purpose, a Dust–Bioaerosol (DuBi) field campaign was conducted to investigate the distribution of bioaerosols by collecting ∼950 samples at 39 sites across East Asia from 2016 to 2021. Concentrations and community structures of bioaerosols were further analyzed using fluorescence microscopic observations and high-throughput DNA sequencing, and these factors were compared to environmental factors, such as PM10 and aridity. The results indicated that microbial concentrations at dryland sites were statistically higher than those at humid sites, while the microbe-to-total-particle ratio was statistically lower in drylands than in humid regions. Microbial cells per microgram of PM10 decreased when PM10 increased. The proportion of airborne particles at each site did not vary substantially with season. The richness and diversity of airborne bacteria were significantly higher in drylands than in semiarid regions, while the community structures were stable among all sampling sites. The DuBi field campaign improves our understanding of bioaerosol characteristic variations along the dust transport pathway in East Asia and the changes of bioaerosols under the trend of climate warming, supporting the efforts to reduce public health risks.