Assessment of environmental conditions by fungal species : a case study of a museum

Abstract

The presence of fungal communities in museum facilities can pose serious threats to the integrity of exhibition items and the health of people frequenting the facilities. Historical museum facilities often provide the ideal environmental conditions including higher temperatures, relative humidity, and water availability, while also supplying nutrients derived from the eating away of artifacts and damp walls. Preventive conservation measures in the form of regular monitoring and early detection are often preferred over costly and invasive restoration and cleaning techniques for the safeguarding of artifacts. Therefore, the identification and quantification of species in museum facilities are preferred to make feasible recommendations for the reduction of fungal activity. The study, therefore, aims to capture, identify, and quantify fungal species in selected rooms in a museum and correlate the findings with temperature and relative humidity measurements obtained from the central control system in place at the facility. This was done through the preparation of vaseline capture slides and the sampling of selected rooms based on a study previously undertaken at the museum. Paintings having a history of fungal activity were also sampled. Such data was correlated with the environmental data using SPSS software which found correlations between the rooms and the fungal spore counts in the rooms. The fungal activity was most prevalent in room FF03 followed by FF07 and GF21, while rooms GF13 and GF18 had the lowest spore concentrations. Moreover, Aspergillus/Penicillium spores were overall most prevalent followed by Cladosporium, Epicoccum, Trichoderma, and Stachybotrys, these species are often found in museum facilities. Alternaria, Basidiospores type, Myxomycete type, and Stemphylium type species on the other hand were least prevalent amongst those collected. It is proposed that a more extensive study, over a longer timeframe, should be conducted at the facility considering a wider selection of environmental parameters, the materials found in the rooms, and incorporating the occurrence of dust and the effect of human presence.