Variability between Hirst-type pollen traps is reduced by resistance-free flow adjustment
AbstractDuring an international campaign organized in Munich (Germany) in 2021 to test the performance of automatic pollen traps, we ran four manual Hirst-type pollen traps in parallel. All 4 Hirst-type pollen traps were set and monitored on a weekly basis for the entire campaign to 10 L/min using the same standard hand-held rotameter. Afterwards, a hand-held heat-wire anemometer (easyFlux ®) was used additionally to obtain the correct flow without internal resistance. Uncorrected pollen concentrations were 26.5% (hourly data) and 21.0% (daily data) higher than those obtained after correction with the easyFlux®. After ma...
Source: Aerobiologia - June 2, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Spore dispersal patterns of the ascomycete fungus Ramularia collo-cygni and their influence on disease epidemics
AbstractRamularia leaf spot is a major economic disease of barley caused by the dothidiomycete fungusRamularia collo-cygni. The fungus has a complex life cycle which includes extensive late season spore release events and a seed-borne phase. Predicting disease epidemics during the growing season remains a difficult challenge. To better understand the interaction between spore movement and disease epidemics, spore samplers were set up in Germany (2 sites over 4 years), Poland (7 sites over 2 years) and the UK (2 sites over 9 years), where the disease has been observed. Spore concentrations were determined using a real-t...
Source: Aerobiologia - May 11, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Pollen germination significantly affected by SO2, NOx, PM10 and AQI in the Amravati City of Maharashtra, India
AbstractAmravati is a developing urban area of Maharashtra state in Central India, with the growth, of urbanization there is an increase in traffic load and pollution. In the present investigation, we examine the effect of vehicular pollution (SO2, NOx PM10, and AQI) on pollen germination. Based on the traffic load we have distinguished three major areas, a no-traffic area (Site A), a heavy traffic area (Site B), and a moderate traffic area (Site C) from Amravati city of Central India. From all three sites, pollen and pistils of Catharanthus roseus, Martinia annua, and Tridax procumbens were collected and examined f...
Source: Aerobiologia - May 11, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Spore dispersal patterns of the ascomycete fungus Ramularia collo-cygni and their influence on disease epidemics
AbstractRamularia leaf spot is a major economic disease of barley caused by the dothidiomycete fungusRamularia collo-cygni. The fungus has a complex life cycle which includes extensive late season spore release events and a seed-borne phase. Predicting disease epidemics during the growing season remains a difficult challenge. To better understand the interaction between spore movement and disease epidemics, spore samplers were set up in Germany (2 sites over 4 years), Poland (7 sites over 2 years) and the UK (2 sites over 9 years), where the disease has been observed. Spore concentrations were determined using a real-t...
Source: Aerobiologia - May 11, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Comparative aerobiological study between two stations located at different points in a coastal city in Southern Spain
In this study, the data obtained by two volumetric pollen traps, located in the coastal city of Malaga (Spain) were analyzed. One of the pollen traps was situated in the city center while the other was located on the city outskirts, 5 km away from the first. This was complemented with a meteorological and land use analysis to determine their influence on the pollen concentrations. Despite being located within the same city, the data obtained from both collectors showed significant differences in the relative abundance and annua l integrals of the main pollen types, as well as in the periods in which elapse their main pol...
Source: Aerobiologia - April 12, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Chilling and heat requirements for woody taxa in T étouan (NW Morocco)
AbstractImpact of climate change affects chilling and heat accumulation that phenological development of plant needs, air temperature being determinant for flowering, pollination and fruit production, but few knowledges are available in the winter and spring climate of T étouan. The physiological mechanisms of the reproductive cycle that controls pollen emission are related with temperature, and different environmental factors regulate strongly the reproductive phases of the plant’s life cycle. However, from an empirical point of view, the alternance between endo dormancy and ecodormancy is not well detectable. Our work...
Source: Aerobiologia - April 11, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Manual and automatic quantification of airborne fungal spores during wheat harvest period
AbstractDue to the large diversity and quantity of fungal spores, such aerobiological studies are not so abundant and haven ’t been done in Serbia so far. As the Pannonian plain is listed as a source of fungal spores all around Europe, our study aimed to describe the aerobiological characteristics of airborne fungal spores measured in location representative for the Pannonian plain during the wheat harvest period and t o evaluate automatic bioaerosol monitoring for quantification of total airborne fungal spores. The study revealed thatCladosporium,Alternaria, andCoprinus accounted for over 90% of the total fungal spores ...
Source: Aerobiologia - April 7, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Modeling airborne pollen concentrations at an urban scale with pollen release from individual trees
AbstractAirborne pollen can trigger allergic reactions, but exposure is poorly understood because neither regional pollen models nor monitoring networks adequately capture the extensive spatial variation in pollen concentrations observed at urban scales. Here, we test whether pollen emissions from individual source plants can predict spatial variation in airborne pollen at scales of hundreds of meters to kilometers. To do so, we quantified pollen release within a city for oaks (Quercus) by mapping individual trees using remote sensing, calculating each tree ’s pollen production with allometric equations, and estimating t...
Source: Aerobiologia - April 3, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Accuracy of a hand-held resistance-free flowmeters for flow adjustments of Hirst-Type pollen traps
AbstractThe Hirst-type pollen trap (1952) is the most common device for aerobiological measurements of pollen and fungal spores in ambient air. In the 1960s the in-line flowmeter was removed and studies since then showed considerable variability in the airflow pumped through the instrument when using hand-held rotameters with an internal airflow resistance to adjust flowrates. To avoid this problem, our study compared the variability of airflow rates of Hirst-type traps when using commercially-available low-resistance airflow meters (heat anemometers) at various timescales. Experiments were conducted in Munich (Germany) an...
Source: Aerobiologia - February 19, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
