Measurement of spore-carrying splash droplets using photographic film and an image-analyzing computer

Abstract

An improved method for the sampling of splash droplets carrying fungal spores uses fixed photographic film. Droplets left clear, permanent traces within which spores were easily visible. The droplet spread factor was constant because the gelatine layer was uniform. A comparison of estimates of the numbers of splash droplets, spore-carrying droplets and spores dispersed by a 5 mm drop falling onto a spore suspension (depth 0.5 mm) with those obtained by other workers demonstrated the reliability of this method. The accuracy was improved by semi-automatic analysis of the spore-carrying splash droplet traces with an image-analysing computer.