Microbial community structure in PM 2.5 affected by burning fireworks during the 2019 Spring Festival in Guilin, a touristic city in South China

In this study, PM2.5 samples were collected at four different sites in the city of Guilin during Spring Festival from February 4 to 8, 2019 and a high-throughput sequencing technology was used to investigate the variations of bacterial diversity and community structure in PM2.5. The results revealed thatProteobacteria was the predominant bacterial phylum comprising 94.3% of the total sequences, followed byFirmicutes,Actinobacteria,Bacteroidetes, andDeinococcus-Thermus. At the genus level, the top five abundant genera accounted for 81.8% of the total sequences. The proportions of major genera (Cupriavidus, Sphingobium, Brevundimonas, Sphingomonas, and Pseudomonas) were apparently affected by firecracker burning. In particular, the relative abundance ofBrevundimonas genus increased dramatically from 3.2 to 60.1% at the Huaqiaonongchang (HQ) sampling site during intense firework burning, while those of other major genera and potential pathogens detected includingPseudomonas,Acinetobacter, andSerratia decreased. In addition, compared with the normal condition, the number of operational taxonomic units and the diversity and richness of microorganisms in PM2.5 samples decreased apparently. Pearson correlation results also revealed that they were negatively correlated with the NO2, SO2, and PM2.5 concentrations.
Source: Aerobiologia - Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research