PJB-2016-200
SEASONAL AND DIURNAL VARIATION OF ATMOSPHERIC FUNGAL SPORE CONCENTRATIONS IN HYDERABAD; TANDOJAM-SINDH AND THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATIC CONDITIONS
MUNEEBA KHAN, ANJUM PERVEEN* AND MUHAMMAD QAISER
Abstract
Airborne biological particles are present in every type of environment. Different types of geographical localities have different type of airspora, which affect human health. The current study is conducted for the first time to identify the airborne fungal spores from Hyderabad: Tando-Jam, Sindh. For this purpose, Burkard’s 7-Days recording volumetric spore trap was used for a period of one year. A total of 68,183 spores/m3 were recorded throughout the study period, belonging to 41 fungal spores types. The presented data revealed that Deuteromycetes spore type was predominant. Cladosporium sp. spores were detected in the highest concentration i.e., 50.83%, which was followed by Aspergillus sp. (18.63%) and Alternaria sp. (11.04%). The highest spore count was captured in the month of September-2008 (17,294 spores/m3), while lowest spore count was found in the month of June-2009. Diurnal patterns of individual fungal spore types was observed to be mid-day to evening maxima for various species. Spearman rank correlation coefficient “r” was determined for correlation of fungal spore counts with climatic factors by using IBM software SPSS ver. 20. Results of the current study revealed that fungal spore concentration was increased in high humid weather while low count was found in hot and windy climate that was also confirmed by statistical analysis. The presented work demonstrated that various types of allergenic and phytopathogenic fungal spores were present in the atmosphere of Hyderabad: Tando-Jam. It was also observed that meteorological conditions had a significant impact on dispersal and concentration of fungal spores.
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