Atmospheric aerosols have been studied in great depth in regards to its metrological and
chemical characterizations. Covering about 33% of the planet, the Global Dust Belt is the
major source of wind-blown dust. Airborne aerosols play important roles in the Earth
systems, impacting the marine and terrestrial ecosystems, human and organismal health.
Aerosolized dust can carry a diverse range of microorganisms that may be transported
across large distances. If surviving the transport, influence, as vectors supporting
microbial populations or as pathogens to other organisms, the recipient ecosystems where
they may be delivered through dry and wet depositions. Located in the middle of the
global dust belt area, the Red Sea receives about 1.2 Mt of emitted dust particles per
storm and a total of 6 Mt dust deposition from the annual 5-6 storm events, which may
contain important loads of microorganisms. This dissertation characterizes the
taxonomical compositions of airborne prokaryotes and micro-eukaryotes and their
transport history in the dust-associated microbiome, and the functional profile of the
airborne microorganisms. The samples required to achieve these goals were collected
with a high-volume dust collector over the Red Sea from the coastal and offshore regions
over two years. In addition, microbial communities sampled from the surface Red Sea
water were used to establish the possible relationship, suggesting an exchange, between
the airborne microbial communities and those in the Red Sea. Since relying on culture5
based analyses would take no notice of unculturable microorganism, culture-independent
techniques were followed to detect the vast majority of the biological particles on the
sampled air filters. However, large volumes of air should be collected due to the
difficulty of acquiring enough genomic materials from the low density of airborne
microorganisms for molecular assays. Sahara Deserts and deserts in the Arabian
Peninsula represented the major sources of microbial inputs to the Red Sea atmosphere.
Hence, a high number of allergens, plant and mammalian pathogens, human and animal
parasites have been detected in airborne dust samples, which could be of concern.
Functionally, dust-associated microbiome has exclusive lifestyle’s features that facilitate
a resilient strategy to survive during airborne transportation, so-called “aeolian lifestyle.”
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:kaust.edu.sa/oai:repository.kaust.edu.sa:10754/666174 |
| Date | 10 1900 |
| Creators | Aalismail, Nojood |
| Contributors | Duarte, Carlos M., Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division, Agusti, Susana, Gojobori, Takashi, Casamayor, Emilio O. |
| Source Sets | King Abdullah University of Science and Technology |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | 2021-12-01, At the time of archiving, the student author of this dissertation opted to temporarily restrict access to it. The full text of this dissertation will become available to the public after the expiration of the embargo on 2021-12-01. |
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