The major chemical constituents of PM2.5 and airborne bacterial community phyla in Beijing, Seoul, and Nagasaki

Abstract Ambient particle (PM2.5) samples were collected in three East Asian cities (Beijing, China; Seoul, South Korea; Nagasaki, Japan) from December 2014 to November 2015 to quantitatively investigate airborne bacteria at the phylum level. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria represented the top five airborne bacterial phyla in all three cities. The most dominant airborne phylum, Proteobacteria, was more prevalent during the winter (at rates of 67.2%, 79.9%, and 87.0% for Beijing, Seoul, and Nagasaki, respectively). Correlations among airborne bacteria and environmental factors including PM2.5, its major chemical constituents, and meteorological factors were calculated. Temperature correlated negatively with Proteobacteria but positively with Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. The abundance of Cyanobacteria correlated positively with particulate NO3− and SO42− levels in Beijing (R = 0.46 and R = 0.35 for NO3− and SO42−, respectively) but negatively in Seoul (R = −0.14 and R = −0.19 for NO3− and SO42−, respectively) and Nagasaki (R = −0.05 and R = −0.03 for NO3− and SO42−, respectively). Backward trajectory analysis was applied for 72 h and three clusters were classified in each city. Five dominant bacteria and other bacterial groups showed significant differences (p