Airborne pollen, spores, and dust across the East Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Airborne pollen and spores, as well as airflow directions, were continuously monitored during a cruise across the East Mediterranean from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Istanbul, Turkey. In spite of the fact that a high-altitude dust cloud moved, at that, time from North Africa, across the East Mediterranean, only a few dust particles were monitored on the boat. The numbers of counted airborne pollen along the cruise path were rather small. This is, in part, because the trip was taken after the main flowering season in the East Mediterranean region. Nevertheless, airborne pollen grains were still found, either as a result of remnant pollen releases by late-flowering plants or because of secondary lift-up of previously settled pollen. The presented pollen counts are average pollen counts /m3 air /6 h. The counts ranged between ∼5 pollen/m3 of air in mid-sea (July 16th–July 17th) or ∼6 pollen/m3 of air on the Israeli coast (July 16–July 17th), and 30 pollen/m3 of air near the coasts of Turkey and of the Greek Islands (July 18th–July 19th) and some 18 taxa of pollen were identified, most of them at the family level. Some 30 taxa of different spores were recorded. The numbers of airborne spores were relatively low in mid-sea (300–750 spores/m3 air), but were high near the coasts of Turkey (1,200–2,400 spores/m3 air) and of Israel (340–1,695 spores/m3 air).