Quantification and characterization of primary biological aerosol particles and bacteria aerosolized from Baltic seawater

Abstract

Abstract. Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP) can influence climate and affect human health. To investigate the aerosolization of PBAP with sea spray aerosol (SSA), we conducted ship-based campaigns in the central Baltic Sea near Östergarnsholm in May and August 2021. Using a plunging jet sea spray simulation chamber filled with local seawater, we performed controlled chamber experiments to collect filters and measure aerosols. We determined the abundance of bacteria in the chamber air and seawater by staining and fluorescence microscopy, normalizing these values to sodium concentration to calculate enrichment factors. Our results showed that bacteria were enriched in the aerosol by 13 to 488 times compared to the underlying seawater, with no significant enrichment observed in the sea surface microlayer. Bacterial abundances obtained through microscopy were compared with estimates of fluorescent PBAP (fPBAP) using a single-particle fluorescence spectrometer. We estimated bacterial emission fluxes using two independent approaches: (1) applying the enrichment factors derived from this study with mass flux estimates from previous SSA parameterizations, and (2) using a scaling approach from a companion study. Both methods produced bacterial emission flux estimates that were in good agreement and on the same order of magnitude as previous studies, while fPBAP emission flux estimates were significantly lower. Furthermore, 16S rRNA sequencing identified the diversity of bacteria enriched in the nascent SSA compared to the underlying seawater.