ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 4172
Session = 8.7.1


PRINCIPLES AND HISTORY OF AEROBIOLOGICAL SAMPLING


P. Comtois, Université de Montréal, Canada


Aerobiology has progressed as a science not only by accumulating results on the biological content of the air, but also be being imaginative in designing new samplers and by sampling all corners of the world, including the stratosphere and the arctic atmosphere. The evolutionary pathway of aerobiology sampling is often forgotten, as are the fundamental principles deduced from these samplings. Aerobiology evolution can be divided into five major steps: 1) the dust catchers" or naturalists' era of the middle XIXth century, best represented by Ehrenberg, 2) the microbe hunters", or the golden age of hygienists, with paramount figures such as Pasteur and Miquel, 3) the sky-hookers" or the crazy flying aerobiologists of the 30's, stigmatized by Meier's crash on the Hawaii clipper, 4) the gradient surveyers" of the 50's, such as Ogden and his white lab coated field assistants, 5) the spore catchers" and first professional aerobiologists such as Gregory, whose Microbiology of the Atmosphere" was the first comprehensive textbook on aerobiology, and 6) the networkers" modern era, started by Durham in the 40', but renewed by Mandrioli in the 80's. And what would be the next century era? Probably the Long Range Dispersal Believers" era, started by AFAR earlier this decade.


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