In 2025-2026 I conducted a study where I examined the diversity of airborne fungi at 100 meters and ground level. I 3D printed a bioaerosol sampling device to attach to my F11 pro Ruko drone to fly the device to 100 meters for sampling. Using this original device, this pilot study showed that bioaerosols were greater in diversity at 100 meters than ground level, meaning greater distribution potentially occurs at higher altitudes. The distribution of bioaerosols is important to study because airborne biological particles such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, and pollen (Šantl-Temkiv et al., 2022), are able to travel great distances through the atmosphere, potentially causing harm. Viruses and bacteria can cause illness (Smets et al., 2016), and fungi could spread disease to crops harming agriculture (Mohaimin et al., 2024). Studying this distribution can be inaccessible due to there being few sampling methods (Smith et al., 2015), (Smith 2013). My device was both inexpensive and accessible.
This year's study aims to build on the 2025-2026 study. It focuses on particulate matter. This study will again use the bioaerosol sampling device attached to the Ruko drone employed in the 2025-2026 study. In addition, a second original device will be 3D printed and hung from the drone to analyze PM density at 100 meters. Airborne PM and fungal diversity will be analyzed to determine if there is a relationship between the two. Particulate Matter (PM) is non-biological particles which contribute to air quality. Bioaerosols have been known to be attached to airborne non-biological particles causing an increase in the distance they can be distributed (Bonfantine et al., 2024), (Sun et al., 2018), (Innocente et al., 2017), (Hu et al., 2020), (Clauß, 2015). This could mean that on days with greater amounts of PM (typically days with worse air quality), there may also be a greater diversity of microbes present. The diversity of bioaerosols attached to PM is important to understand, because when bioaerosols are distributed greater distances, they can enter environments they might be foreign to, possibly causing harm, and PM can have negative effects on human health due to its effects on the respiratory system. Additionally a bioaerosol and PM are attached, if the origin of one of the two is known, this can help pinpoint the origin of the other. This could help predict the spread of bioaerosols when particulate matter levels are high, helping warn people of potential risks of illness, and having devices that can detect both of these could help pinpoint their origins.
In summary, the inexpensive and accessible device engineered in this study could make sampling methods widely available improving the monitoring of particulate matter, potentially raising awareness and allowing time to engineer solutions in the case of air quality events, while also seeing if there is a correlation between PM levels and bioaerosol diversity.
Contact Dylan for the complete research plan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (for complete research plan)
Šantl-Temkiv, T., Amato, P., Casamayor, E. O., Lee, P. K. H., & Pointing, S. B. (2022). Microbial ecology of the atmosphere. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 46(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/femsre/fuac009
David J. Smith. (2013, July 1) Aeroplankton and the Need for a Global Monitoring Network, BioScience, Volume 63, Issue 7, July 2013, Pages 515–516, https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2013.63.7.3
B. Smith, M. Beman, D. Gravano and Y. Chen, "Development and validation of a microbe detecting UAV payload," 2015 Workshop on Research, Education and Development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (RED-UAS), Cancun, Mexico, 2015, pp. 258-264, http://doi.org/10.1109/RED-UAS.2015.7441015
Sun, Y., Xu, S., Zheng, D., Li, J., Tian, H., & Wang, Y. (2018). Effects of haze pollution on microbial community changes and correlation with chemical components in atmospheric particulate matter. Science of the Total Environment, 637–638, 507–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.203
Innocente, E., Squizzato, S., Visin, F., Facca, C., Rampazzo, G., Bertolini, V., Gandolfi, I., Franzetti, A., Ambrosini, R., & Bestetti, G. (2017). Influence of seasonality, air mass origin and particulate matter chemical composition on airborne bacterial community structure in the Po Valley, Italy. Science of The Total Environment, 593–594, 677–687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.199
Clauß, M. (2015). Particle size distribution of airborne microorganisms in the environment - a review. Landbauforschung = Applied Agricultural and Forestry Research : Journal of Applied Research in Agriculture and Forestry, 65(2), 77–100. https://doi.org/10.3220/LBF1444216736000
Bonfantine, K., Vuono, D. C., Christner, B. C., Moore, R., Fox, S., Dean, T., Betancourt, D., Watts, A., & Kobziar, L. N. (2024). Evidence for Wildland Fire Smoke Transport of Microbes from Terrestrial Sources to the Atmosphere and Back. Journal of geophysical research. Biogeosciences, 129(9), e2024JG008236. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JG008236
Mohaimin, A. Z., Krishnamoorthy, S., & Shivanand, P. (2024). A critical review on bioaerosols-dispersal of crop pathogenic microorganisms and their impact on crop yield. Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology], 55(1), 587–628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-023-01179-9
Smets, W., Moretti, S., Denys, S., & Lebeer, S. (2016). Airborne bacteria in the atmosphere: Presence, purpose, and potential. Atmospheric Environment, 139, 214-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.05.038
Hu, W., Murata, K., (2020, September 10) Fan, C., Huang, S., Matsusaki, H., Fu, P., and Zhang, D.: Abundance and viability of particle-attached and free-floating bacteria in dusty and nondusty air, Biogeosciences, 17, 4477–4487, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4477-2020
