Airborne fungal communities are more susceptible to anthropogenic activities than bacteria.

Publication date: Mar 01, 2025

Airborne microorganisms (AM) have significant environmental and health implications. Extensive studies have been conducted to investigate the factors influencing the composition and diversity of AM. However, the knowledge of AM with anthropogenic activities has not reach a consensus. In this study, we took advantage of the dramatic decline of outdoor anthropogenic activities resulting from COVID-19 lockdown to reveal their associations. We collected airborne particulate matter before and during the lockdown period in two cities. The results showed that it was fungal diversity and communities but not bacteria obviously different between pre-lockdown and lockdown samples, suggesting that airborne fungi were more susceptible to anthropogenic activities than bacteria. However, after the implementation of lockdown, the co-occurrence networks of both bacterial and fungal community became more complex, which might be due to the variation of microbial sources. Furthermore, Mantel test and correlation analysis showed that air pollutants also partly contributed to microbial alterations. Airborne fungal community was more affected by air pollutants than bacterial community. Notably, some human pathogens like Nigrospora and Arthrinium were negatively correlated with air pollutants. Overall, our study highlighted the more impacts of anthropogenic activities on airborne fungal community than bacterial community and advanced the understanding of associations between anthropogenic activities and AM.

Concepts Keywords
China Air Microbiology
Environmental Air Pollutants
Extensive Air Pollutants
Fungi Air pollutants
Pathogens Airborne microorganisms
Anthropogenic activities
Bacteria
China
COVID-19
COVID-19 lockdown
Environmental Monitoring
Fungi
Humans
Particulate Matter
Particulate Matter
Response

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease VO Bacteria
disease MESH COVID-19
disease VO Fungi
drug DRUGBANK Medical air

Original Article

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