Environ Monit Assess (2010) 164:221–231 DOI 10.1007/s10661-009-0887-8 Airborne and soilborne microfungi in the vicinity Hamitabat Thermic Power Plant in Kirklareli City (Turkey), their seasonal distributions and relations with climatological factors Ahmet Asan · Suzan Sarıca Okten · Burhan Sen Received: 22 August 2008 / Accepted: 10 March 2009 / Published online: 4 April 2009 © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract Soil and air samples of seven differ- ent localities around Hamitabat Thermic Power Plant, 10 km far away from Luleburgaz/Kirklareli (Turkey), were taken between the years 2003 and 2004 with seasonal intervals. The samples were brought to the laboratory and their microfungal identifications were done. From the air samples, 737 microfungi colonies were isolated compris- ing 26 species belonging to eight genera. From soil samples, 170.6 × 10 4 colony-forming unit (CFU)/g was isolated from 33 species belong- ing to 16 genera. The most isolated genus from air samples was Alternaria (324 CFU, 43.96%), followed by Cladosporium (208 CFU, 25.52%) and Phoma (44 CFU, 5.40%). Penicillium was the most isolated genus from the soil samples with a value of 560,000 CFU/g (32.8%), followed by Fusarium (226,000 CFU/g, 13.12%) and As- pergillus (154,000 CFU/g, 9.03%). Among these species, Alternaria citri and Alternaria alternata are the most abundant species in air with 164 and 107 CFU, respectively, whereas Fusarium graminearum and Penicillium citrinum are the A. Asan (B ) · S. S. Okten · B. Sen Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology, Trakya University, 22030, Edirne, Turkey e-mail: ahmetasan84@yahoo.com most abundant species in soil with CFU per gram values of 17.8 × 10 4 and 1.3 × 10 5 . Correlation analysis was applied to determine whether or not there was a relationship between colony number of isolated fungal genera and meteorological fac- tors. Some parameters of soil samples’ incontent during the research period were calculated using a computer analysis program. From the air samples, a positive correlation was found between relative humidity and Alternaria colonial counts and Cla- dosporium spore counts (r = 0.912 and r = 1.000, respectively). Similarly, with the analysis of soil samples, a positive correlation between colonial counts of Alternaria and soil pH and a positive correlation between colonial counts of Aspergillus and Penicillium and salt percentage concentration of soil were found. Keywords Airborne fungi · Soil fungi · Thermic power plant · Biomass Introduction Fungi play a major role in human life. They have roles in the decomposition of decaying organic matter in nature, in enzyme, organic acid, an- tibiotics, protein, and vitamin production (Asan 1990); nevertheless, they are considered to be con- nected to the cause of adverse health effects in hu- mans, animals, and also plants (Ozkara et al. 2007)