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Surface Ocean and Lower Atmosphere Study¡ªAir-Sea interactions and their climatic and environmental impacts
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Coupling between oceanic microbial interactions and atmospheric biological aerosol composition (Invited)
Wednesday 9th @ 0930-0950, Conference Room 7
Yinon Rudich* , Weizmann Institute
Miri Trainic, Weizmann Institute
Ilan Koren, Weizmann Institute
Assaf Vardi, Weizmann Institute
Presenter Email: yinon.rudich@weizmann.ac.il |
| The contribution of oceanic microbial activity to sea spray aerosol (SSA) is not fully established. We assessed aerosolization of the calcite units (coccoliths) that compose the exoskeleton of the abundant bloom-forming coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi. Airborne coccolith emission occurs in steady-state conditions and increases by an order of magnitude during E. huxleyi infection by E. huxleyi virus (EhV). Airborne to seawater coccolith ratio is 1:110, providing estimation of airborne concentrations from seawater concentrations. The coccoliths¡® unique aerodynamic structure yields a slow settling velocity suggesting enrichment of the coccolith fraction in the atmosphere. This enrichment suggests that close to areas with bloom demise, coccoliths may be key contributors to coarse mode SSA surface area, comparable with sea salt aerosols. In addition, using a laboratory-based setup, we will show that the dynamic of aerial emission of the EhV virus is strongly coupled to the host virus dynamic in the culture media. In a complementary field campaign we recovered EhV DNA from atmospheric samples collected over an E. huxleyi bloom in the North Atlantic, providing evidence for aerosolization of marine viruses in their natural environment. Together, these studies suggest a strong coupling between key oceanic microbial interactions and fundamental atmospheric processes. |
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