Occurrence of airborne Cladosporium and Alternaria spores in Southern and Central Poland in 1995-1996

Abstract

The concentration of airborne spores of Cladosporium and Alternaria has been investigated at five monitoring stations situated in cities from the foot of the Tatra Mountains to central Poland along a south-north transect (Zakopane, Krakow, Ostrowiec Świetokrzyski, Warszawa, Poznan) i.e. from a height of 900 m to 80 m above sea level. The aerobiological monitoring of fungal spores was performed by means of five Burkard volumetric spore traps. Cladosporium spores were dominant at all the stations. The highest Cladosporium and Alternaria spore concentrations were observed at all the sites in July and August, except at Warszawa in both years and at Poznan in 1995 where the maximum of Cladosporium spores occurred in June and July, and at Ostrowiec Świetokrzyski in 1995 where the maximum was found in July, August and September. Fungal spore concentrations in Zakopane and Krakow were significantly lower than those in Ostrowiec Świetokrzyski, Warszawa and Poznan and periods of abundant Cladosporium spore occurrence were different in these two groups of monitoring stations.