Aerobiology of an environment with natural vegetation of the southwest Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Abstract

The study of the aerobiology of natural environments provides information about the pollen grains and fungal spores in the atmosphere. Very little is known in Argentina about the aerobiological diversity of fungal spores. The aim of this work is to establish a qualitative evaluation of the fungal spores present in air samples from the Salitral of la Vidriera, a saltmarsh located in southwestern Buenos Aires province. Air sampling was carried out with a μCoriolis Air Sampler during each of four seasons of the year. From the obtained sample, isolations were made in MEA (malt extract agar) and colonies were estimated as CFU/m3. Spores were counted with an optical microscope (spores/m3). The viable spore types identified belonged mainly to Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium and Rhizopus. In the spore counts, Alternaria and Cladosporium were detected year-round, while Epicoccum, Nigrospora, Dreschlera-Bipolaris type, basidiospores s.l., Leptosphaeria, Periconia, Stemphyllium, Torula and uredinospores occur seasonally. The new methodology used allowed the presence of Penicillium, Aspergillus and Rhizopus to be detected, which was an improvement over previous methods using non-viable equipment. We can conclude that the use of the μCoriolis equipment is important when the goal is a complete environmental characterization.