title: Epifluorescent direct counts of bacteria and viruses from topsoil of various desert dust storm regions.
abstract: Topsoil from arid regions is the main source of dust clouds that move through the earth's atmosphere, and microbial communities within these soils can survive long-range dispersion. Microbial abundance and chemical composition were analyzed in topsoil from various desert regions. Statistical analyses showed that microbial direct counts were strongly positively correlated with calcium concentrations and negatively correlated with silicon concentrations. While variance between deserts was expected, it was interesting to note differences between sample sites within a given desert region, illustrating the 'patchy' nature of microbial communities in desert environments.
authors.affiliation: University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands, 38203 Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. cristina.bio.ull@gmail.com
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Martin
authors.forename: Nuria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Teigell-Perez
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lyles
authors.forename: Basilio
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Valladares
authors.forename: Dale W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Griffin
mesh_terms: D058491:Bacterial Load; D003889:Desert Climate; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis*; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014780:Viruses / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D004391:Dust