A microbial survey of the museal airborne fungal biodeteriogens

Abstract

Tangible cultural heritage is exposed to multiple environmental risk factors able to affect its integrity and cultural function. Such factors are physical, chemical and also microbiological. Fungal biodeterioration is known to cause aesthetical and structural damage to materials, the effect increasing in the case of improper depositing or accidents like floods or water leakage. At the same time, air contamination with different fungal spores can add more a risking factor for heritage goods safety. Tracing of air biocontamination has a double significance: protection of museum` workers health from hazardous bio-aerosols and the control of the presence of biodeteriogens able to decompose museum pieces. The present paper will present the methodology used for the detection of the fungal species in the air of an ethnographical museum in Romania, in storage rooms, as well as in exposition rooms. Preliminary results show the predominance of fungal genera with known cellulolytic activity, such as Aspergillus, Penicillium and Cladosporium and direct correlation between the values of temperature and humidity and the concentration and types of air cultivable fungal species. Further more, the culture media used for the isolation of the air fungal species proved to be an important factor in the isolation methodology.

Keywords

• tangible heritage
• heritage textiles
• ethnographical textiles
• ethnographical museum
• fungal biodeterioration
• air microbial load
• aerobiology
• cellulolytic fungi