Quantitative and diversity analysis of biomass collected from Singapore haze 2015

Being one of most densely populated countries, Singapore is fortunate to be freed of most natural disaster. However, she is not spared of recurring haze that has affected her for several decades. This haze is induced from the massive burning of biomass in Indonesia which resulted in serious air pollution in Southeast Asia. Over the years, increased researches are done to find out the health effects caused by the particulate matter (PM) in the haze. While the studies on the physical and chemical composition of PM are readily available in the literature, information on the biological composition is limited. Therefore, this final year project (FYP) served as a study to compare the concentration of the bioaerosols during the haze period and the non-haze period. In order to carry out this study, bioaerosols are sampled during the haze period and the non-haze period. The haze period is from 11th to 17th September 2015 and 24th to 27th September 2015. As for the non-haze period, it is from 7th December 2015 to 11th December 2015, 14th December 2015, 22nd December 2015 and 23rd December 2015. The collected samples were then undergone Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction and quantification using fluorometry and quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR). From this two processes, the total DNA concentrations and airborne bacterial DNA concentrations were determined. Results have shown that the total DNA concentrations are lower during the haze period than the non-haze period. During the haze period, the total DNA concentrations are higher in the day than at night. On a contrary, total DNA concentrations are higher in the night that in the day during the non-haze period. As for the airborne bacterial DNA concentrations, they are higher in the day than at night during both haze and non-haze period. As this is one of the first studies on the bio-concentration of haze and non-haze, further researches are recommended to be conducted over a longer duration so that the results obtained will have greater significance statistically. Also, the study will be more comprehensive if the specific species of the airborne microorganisms can be verified with next-generation sequencing technologies.Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental Engineering