The variability of pollen concentrations at two stations in the city of Wroc\u0142aw in Poland

Daria Bilińska,Maciej Kryza,Małgorzata Werner,Małgorzata Malkiewicz

doi:10.1007/s10453-019-09567-1

Daria Bilińska, Maciej Kryza + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-019-09567-1

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Journal: Aerobiologia	Publication Date: Feb 14, 2019
Citations: 12	License type: open-access

Affiliation: University of Wrocław, Instytut Nauk Geologicznych

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the variability of Alnus and Corylus pollen concentrations at two stations located in the city of Wrocław, Poland—one at the city centre and the other 4 km from the city centre. Our goal was to compare measurements from these stations in relation to meteorology and land cover. We used Spearman’s correlation coefficient to investigate any dependence between meteorological factors and pollen concentration. Additionally, to check the relation between the direction of inflow of air masses and pollen concentration, we calculated the backward trajectories using the HYSPLIT model. The results have shown that despite the short distance between the stations, the characteristic of the pollen season is different for both stations (i.a. date of start and end of pollen season, duration of the season). The Spearman’s correlation coefficient between relative humidity and air temperature and pollen concentration was found to be statistically significant. The backward trajectories calculated with HYSPLIT suggested a different origin of air masses between stations for high-concentration episodes in the case of Alnus. Our study has shown that analysis of meteorological conditions and influence of air transport into pollen concentration makes it possible to ascertain the reasons for differences in pollen level at these two stations, both of which are located in the same climatological domain. The study also shows that the aerobiological condition may change significantly over a short distance, which is a major challenge, for example, for pollen emission, transport, and concentration modelling.

Highlights

Corylus and Alnus are trees which release first pollen grains that are measured in the air of Poland each year (Puc and Kasprzyk 2013)
According to research conducted by Rapiejko et al (2007) in Poland, the first symptoms of allergy of sensitized people to these taxa appear in low concentrations of pollen: for hazel, the threshold value is 35 pollen grains per cubic meter of air and for alder 45 pollen grains m-3, whereas symptoms for all sensitized people are observed at slightly higher pollen concentration amounting to 80 pollen grains m-3 in the case of Corylus and 85 pollen grains m-3 in the case of Alnus
Our study has shown that it is possible that the pollen concentration varies greatly even in sampling sites located close to each other (c.a. 4 km)

Summary

Introduction

Corylus (hazel) and Alnus (alder) are trees which release first pollen grains that are measured in the air of Poland each year (Puc and Kasprzyk 2013). According to research conducted by Rapiejko et al (2007) in Poland, the first symptoms of allergy of sensitized people to these taxa appear in low concentrations of pollen: for hazel, the threshold value is 35 pollen grains per cubic meter of air (pollen grains m-3) and for alder 45 pollen grains m-3, whereas symptoms for all sensitized people are observed at slightly higher pollen concentration amounting to 80 pollen grains m-3 in the case of Corylus and 85 pollen grains m-3 in the case of Alnus. Flowering anemophilous trees to burst their anthers requires special meteorological conditions like high temperature, low humidity and moderate wind speed (Efstathiou et al 2011)

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