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Abstract
We have investigated the relationship between the inflow of air masses and the ragweed pollen concentration in SW Poland (Wrocław) for a 10-year period of 2005–2014. The HYSPLIT trajectory model was used to verify whether episodes of high concentrations can be related to regions outside of the main known ragweed centres in Europe, like Pannonian Plain, northern Italy and Ukraine. Furthermore, we used two different meteorological data sets (the global GDAS data set and from the WRF mesoscale model; the meteorological parameters were: U and V wind components, temperature and relative humidity) into HYSPLIT to evaluate the influence of meteorological input on calculated trajectories for high concentration ragweed episodes. The results show that the episodes of high pollen concentration (above 20 pm−3) represent a great part of total recorded ragweed pollen in Wrocław, but occur rarely and not in all years. High pollen episodes are connected with air masses coming from south and south-west Europe, which confirms the existence of expected ragweed centres but showed that other centres near Wrocław are not present. The HYSPLIT simulations with two different meteorological inputs indicated that footprint studies on ragweed benefit from a higher resolution meteorological data sets.
Highlights
Ambrosia artemisiifolia is a wind pollinating annual plant that belongs to the Asteraceae family (Fumanal et al 2007; Smith et al 2013)
These source areas regularly affect other parts of Europe with airborne ragweed pollen being transported for long distances, and Poland appears to be in particular exposed to episodes of airborne common ragweed pollen from other regions (Smith et al 2008; Kasprzyk et al 2011; Sikoparija et al 2013)
Three episodes of high concentrations of airborne ragweed pollen were observed in Wrocław in 2005–2014
Summary
Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed) is a wind pollinating annual plant that belongs to the Asteraceae family (Fumanal et al 2007; Smith et al 2013). The highest concentrations of common ragweed pollen in Europe are observed in the Pannonian Plain (Jarai-Komlodi 2000; Rybnıcek et al 2000; Mosyakin and Yavorska 2002; Peternel et al 2005; Sikoparija et al 2006), the northern part of Italy (Zanon et al 2002; Cecchi et al 2006), and central and south-east France (Laaidi and Laaidi 1999; Laaidi et al 2003). These source areas regularly affect other parts of Europe with airborne ragweed pollen being transported for long distances, and Poland appears to be in particular exposed to episodes of airborne common ragweed pollen from other regions (Smith et al 2008; Kasprzyk et al 2011; Sikoparija et al 2013)
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