This is an illustrated guide to trapping, identifying and quantifying airborne biological particles such as fungus, plant spores and pollen. Including a comprehensive review of what is in the air and detailing the historical development of theories leading to modern aerobiology, the book explains the fundamental processes behind airborne dispersal and techniques used to sample, identify and quantify biological particles. Includes photographs and 9 colour reproductions of paintings of airborne particles.

Historical introduction; Spores: their properties and sedimentation in still air; The atmosphere as an environment; Spora liberation; Liberation in splash droplets; Horizontal diffusion; Deposition processes; Natural deposition; Air sampling technique; The air spora neas the earth's surface; Survival in the atmosphere; The upper-air spora; Deposition in rain, snow, and hail; The air spora of enclosed spaces; Inhaled microbes; Deposition gradients and isolation.

The 'exposed plate' method was used to trap airborne fungal spores in the open and in the jungle at Joint Tropical Research Unit (J.T.R.U.) at Innisfail, Queensland, over a period of three years. One hundred and nineteen genera were recorded and distinct seasonal and diurnal variation was observed in the more common ones. Spores of Cladosporium were more frequently trapped than any other genus at the cleared site and in the jungle. Curvularia, Geotrichum, Leptosphaerulina, Monilia, Penicillium and Nigrospora were also abundant and several other genera, including Aureobasidium, Fusarium, Paecilomyces and Periconia, were often present. The use of quantitative alginate filtration during the final year supplemented the exposed-plate data, but differences in the technique prevented close comparison of the results.

Aerobiology is study of air-borne microorganisms of their identity, behavior movements and survival. The term aer obiology was coined by American plant pathologist Fred Campell Meier in 1930s to embrace studies of fungal spores, pollen grains and bacteria in the atmosphere. The scope of aerobiology has been widened to include various other biological particulates like plant propagules, protozoan cysts insects, algae, fungi, lichen fragments, bacteria, pollen grains and viruses etc. Jacob (1951) defines aerobiology as the dispersion of insect population, fungal spores, pollens, bacteria, virus moulds and all forms of life both plants and animals which becomes airborne, and get transported in the atmosphere.