Bioaerosols, including bacteria and fungi, are ubiquitous and have been shown to impact various organisms as well as biogeochemical cycles and human health. However, sample collection poses a challenge for aeromicrobiologists and can determine the success of a study. Establishing a standard collection procedure for bioaerosol sampling could help advance the field. We tested the efficiency (number of organisms collected and DNA yield per unit time) of three sampling devices: a membrane filtration device, a liquid impinger, and a portable electrostatic precipitator bioaerosol collector. We compared the efficiency of these three devices for both culture-dependent studies, by enumerating colony forming units (CFUs), and culture-independent studies, by extracting and quantifying total DNA. Our results show that the electrostatic precipitator collected microorganisms significantly more efficiently than the membrane filtration and liquid impingement in both types of studies over the same time interval. This is due to the high flow rate of the device. This work is important and timely because aeromicrobiology is currently restricted by long sampling times and risk of evaporation, desiccation, or freezing during sample, which increases with sampling times. Fieldwork convenience and portability of instruments are an additional challenge for sampling. Using a sampler that can overcome these technical hurdles can accelerate the advancement of the field, and the use of a lightweight, battery-powered, inexpensive, and portable bioaerosol collection device could address these limitations.

生物气溶胶（包括细菌和真菌）无处不在，并已显示出会影响各种生物以及生物地球化学循环和人类健康。但是，样品采集对空气微生物学家提出了挑战，并可能决定研究的成功。建立用于生物气溶胶采样的标准收集程序可能有助于推动该领域的发展。我们测试了三种采样设备的效率（收集的生物数量和每单位时间的DNA产量）：膜过滤设备，液体撞击器和便携式静电除尘器生物气溶胶收集器。通过比较菌落形成单位（CFU），我们比较了这三种设备对培养依赖性研究的效率，并通过提取和定量了总DNA比较了这三种设备的效率。我们的研究结果表明，在相同的时间间隔内，两种类型的研究中，静电除尘器比膜过滤和液体撞击更有效地收集微生物。这是由于设备的高流速造成的。这项工作非常重要且及时，因为空气微生物学目前受到采样时间长和样品蒸发，干燥或冻结的风险的限制，而采样，蒸发或干燥或冻结的风险随采样时间的增加而增加。野外工作的便利性和仪器的便携性是采样的另一个挑战。使用可以克服这些技术障碍的采样器可以加快该领域的发展，而使用轻便，电池供电，廉价且便携式的生物气溶胶收集设备可以解决这些局限性。