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Chaos / Volume 21 / Issue 3 / REGULAR ARTICLES

Chaos 21, 033122 (2011); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3624930 (16 pages)

Lagrangian coherent structures are associated with fluctuations in airborne microbial populations

P. Tallapragada1, S. D. Ross2, and D. G. Schmale, III3

1Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina 28223, USA
2Engineering Science and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
3Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0390, USA

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(Received 27 April 2011; accepted 25 July 2011; published online 9 September 2011)

Many microorganisms are advected in the lower atmosphere from one habitat to another with scales of motion being hundreds to thousands of kilometers. The concentration of these microbes in the lower atmosphere at a single geographic location can show rapid temporal changes. We used autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with microbe-sampling devices to collect fungi in the genus Fusarium 100 m above ground level at a single sampling location in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. Some Fusarium species are important plant and animal pathogens, others saprophytes, and still others are producers of dangerous toxins. We correlated punctuated changes in the concentration of Fusarium to the movement of atmospheric transport barriers identified as finite-time Lyapunov exponent-based Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs). An analysis of the finite-time Lyapunov exponent field for periods surrounding 73 individual flight collections of Fusarium showed a relationship between punctuated changes in concentrations of Fusarium and the passage times of LCSs, particularly repelling LCSs. This work has implications for understanding the atmospheric transport of invasive microbial species into previously unexposed regions and may contribute to information systems for pest management and disease control in the future.

© 2011 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. MATHEMATICAL BACKGROUND ON LCS
  3. ROLE OF ATBs IN PUNCTUATED CHANGES
    1. Punctuated changes in the concentration of Fusarium
    2. Hypotheses on ATBs and punctuated changes
    3. Statistical framework for hypotheses testing
  4. COMPUTATION OF LCS
  5. RESULTS
  6. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

atmospheric boundary layer, atmospheric composition, Lyapunov methods, microorganisms, remotely operated vehicles

PACS

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3624930

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1054-1500 (print)  
1089-7682 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.
    F. Lekien, S. C. Shadden, and J. E. Marsden, J. Math. Phys. 48, 065404 (2007)JMAPAQ000048000006065404000001.

    F. J. Beron-Vera, M. J. Olascoaga, M. G. Brown, H. Kocak, and I. Rypina, Chaos 20, 017514 (2010)CHAOEH000020000001017514000001.

    T. Koh and B. Legras, Chaos 12 (2), 382 (2002)CHAOEH000012000002000382000001.


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