Analysis of ice-nucleating particles and their biological content in the eastern Mediterranean using microfluidic devices

Start date: 12 June 2017
End date: 11 June 2019
Value: $100,000
Partners and collaborators: Weizmann Institute of Science
Primary investigator: Dr Mark D. Tarn
External primary investigator: Prof. Yinon Rudich (Weizmann Institute of Science)
Co-investigators: Professor Benjamin Murray
External co-investigators: Dr Naama Reicher (Weizmann Institute of Science)

Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) play a crucial role in climate by affecting the radiative properties of clouds and precipitation. A multitude of different aerosol types may serve as ice nucleating particles, including biological material, desert dusts and sea spray aerosol. However, the relative contribution of these distinct ice nucleating materials is very poorly understood and there are very few measurements of INPs in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The eastern Mediterranean provides an ideal location for studying INPs from various regions. This region is influenced by dust storms originating in the Sahara Desert and the Middle East, marine biogenic aerosols from the Mediterranean Sea, and biogenic particles lofted into the atmosphere from agricultural areas. In addition, biological material is also associated with desert dust, with unknown influence on its ice-nucleating activity.

We will take advantage of the unique environment of the eastern Mediterranean to study the impact of INPs from this multitude of sources and to investigate the competition between them and thus their relative importance on a day-to-day basis. We will combine analyses of the atmospheric microbiome with microfluidic measurements of INPs to identify the effects of biological aerosols, dust loading, dust source regions and composition on the ability of dust and bioaerosols to nucleate ice.

Publications and outputs

• Tarn, M. D., Wyld, B. V., Reicher, N., Alayof, M., Gat, D., Sanchez-Marroquin, A., Sikora, S. N. F., Harrison, A. D., Rudich, Y. and Murray, B. J., Atmospheric ice-nucleating particles in the eastern Mediterranean and the contribution of mineral and biological aerosol, Aerosol Research, 2024, 2 (1), 161–182, https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-2-161-2024.

• Gat, D., Reicher, N., Schechter, S., Alayof, M., Tarn, M. D., Wyld, B. V., Zimmermann, R. and Rudich, Y., Size-resolved community structure of bacteria and fungi transported by dust in the Middle East, Frontiers in Microbiology, 2021, 12, 744117, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.744117.

• Tarn, M. D., Sikora, S. N. F., Porter, G. C. E., Wyld, B. V., Alayof, M., Reicher, N., Harrison, A. D., Rudich, Y., Shim, J.-u. and Murray, B. J., On-chip analysis of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles in continuous flow, Lab on a Chip, 2020, 20 (16), 2889-2910, https://doi.org/10.1039/d0lc00251h.