Atmospheric particles, airborne bacteria and fungi at Akrotiri monitoring station (Crete, Greece) Microbial analysis

Atmospheric particles cover a wide size range with the smaller ones being in the nanoscale while dust particles lie in the micron size range. Their dynamics depend strongly on their size therefore different behaviours and interactions may be observed at different sizes. Besides particles, biological entities such as airborne bacteria and fungi are a significant contributor to the atmospheric environment. The objective of this work was to measure simultaneously airborne particle of various sizes, airborne bacteria and fungi to investigate the contributions from both the biotic and abiotic environment, the relative contributions and the possible interactions and dynamics between particles and microorganisms.