Airborne Pollen Concentration in Tainan, Taiwan, 1993-1995

Abstract

An investigation of airborne pollen concentration was conducted in two consecutive years in Tainan, Taiwan, by using a Burkard seven-day volumetric recording trap. A total of 14,232 pollen grains of seed plants were counted. The mean of pollen concentration was 1.35 grains/m^3. In the course of a year, airborne pollen was most abundant in spring (late March to May) and least in autumn (from September to November). Most of the pollen grains collected were contributed by urban vegetation and garden trees. The important pollen taxa were Broussonetia (39.10%), Gramineae (10.15%), Casuarina equisetifolia (6.68%), Artrocarpus (5.50%), Chenopodiaceae (5.19%), Macaranga tanarius (4.70%), Alnus formosana (4.40%), Typha angustifolia (3.91%), Humulus scandens (2.66%) and Compositae (2.46%). In the above taxa, the main contributors of tree pollen are members of subclass Hamamelidae. Broussonetia is increasingly important in aeropalynological studies in Taiwan for its high pollen concentration reported in this study as well as many other recent investigations.