Predicting reaerosolization

Abstract

Outdoor studies of the environmental persistence of bacteria have led to many interesting results. It turns out that the initial deposition of bacteria is not the end of the story. We examined both the ongoing daily deposition and aerosolization of bacteria for two weeks following an initial deposition event. Differences between samples collected in a clearing and those collected beneath a forest canopy were also examined. There were two important results: first, bacteria were still moving about in significant quantities after two weeks, though the local environment where they were most prevalent appeared to shift over time; second, we were able to develop a simple mathematical model that could fairly accurately estimate the average daily airborne concentration of bacteria over the duration of the experiment using readily available environmental information. The implication is that deposition patterns are very likely to shift over an extended period of time following a release, possibly quite significantly, but there is hope that we may be able to estimate these changes fairly accurately.