A 2-year aeropalynological survey of allergenic pollen in the atmosphere of Kastamonu, Turkey

Abstract

Knowledge of airborne pollen concentrations and the weather conditions influencing them is important for air quality forecasters, allergists and allergy sufferers. For this reason, a 7-day recording volumetric spore trap of the Hirst design was used for pollen monitoring between January 2006 and December 2007 in Kastamonu, Turkey. A total of 293,427 pollen grains belonging to 51 taxa were recorded during the study period. In the 2 years of study, the period March-August was identified as the main pollination season for Kastamonu. The highest monthly pollen counts were observed in May in both years. Six taxa made up 86.5% of the total amount of pollen recorded in the atmosphere of Kastamonu. These were as follows: Pinaceae (42.9%), Cupressaceae (20.6%), Poaceae (9.7%), Quercus (5.5%) Betula (5.3%) and Carpinus (2.6%). Four of these are considered to be highly allergenic (Betula, Carpinus, Cupressaceae and Poaceae). There were also a greater percentage of highly allergenic taxa found within the city, including Betula pendula that is not part of the local flora. This shows that through urban planting, the public and municipalities can unconsciously create a high risk for allergy sufferers. Daily average pollen counts from the six most frequently recorded pollen types were entered into Spearman's correlation analysis with meteorological data. Mean daily temperature, relative humidity, daily rainfall and wind speed were found to significantly (p \ 0.05) affect atmospheric pollen concentrations, but the relationships between pollen concentrations and meteorological variables can vary and so there is a need for more local studies of this nature.

Crop harvest in Denmark and Central Europe contributes to the local load of airborne <i>Alternaria</i> spore concentrations in Copenhagen

“…The advantage of the Hirst trap is that it provides a daily or bihourly record of fungal spore concentrations that may be used to construct actual calendars of bioaerosols (e.g. Ceter et al, 2012;Melgar et al, 2012;Skjøth and Sommer, 2010). The disadvantage of the Hirst trap is that the associated method for counting of the spores in microscopes only provides observations of fungal spores at the genus level (e.g.…”

“…The disadvantage of the Hirst trap is that the associated method for counting of the spores in microscopes only provides observations of fungal spores at the genus level (e.g. Ceter et al, 2012;Skjøth and Sommer, 2010), whereas qPCR can quantify fungal spores at the species level. This disadvantage is outweighed by the long time series with high temporal resolution, often covering several years with bi-hourly records (Oliveira et al, 2009;Stepalska et al, 1999;Stepalska and Wolek, 2009) or even up to 10 yr or more (Aira et al, 2008;Hjelmroos, 1993;Skjøth and Sommer, 2010).…”

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“…Many studies have examined the relationship between airborne pollen concentrations and allergy in Turkey (Altıntas et al 2004, Çelik et al 2004, Dursun et al 2008, Can et al 2010. To describe the seasonal variations in pollen recorded at the locations, pollen calendars have been prepared for many cities in Turkey (Ince 1994, Inceoğlu et al 1994, Bıçakçı et al 1996, Pınar et al 1999, Güvensen and Öztürk 2002, Potoğlu Erkara et al2007, Çeter et al 2012, Öztürk et al 2013, Tosunoğlu et al 2015, Acar 2016.…”

“…All these studies show that Pinaceae, Poaceae, Cupressaceae/Taxaceae, Populus, are the most dominant taxa over the study periods (Inceoğlu et al1994, Pınar et al 1999, Kaplan 2003, Kızılpınar and Doğan 2010, Kızılpınar et al 2011. The pollen content of atmosphere varies according to local flora, climate changes, meteorological factors and the pollen season period (Emberlin et al1997, Jato et al2002, Pınar et al2004, Jato et al 2009, Bogawski et al 2014, Çeter et al 2012. Therefore, detecting pollen types and their concentrations are very important, particularly in the atmosphere of highly populated cities.…”

Predicting walnut (Juglans spp.) crop yield using meteorological and airborne pollen data

“…Juglans pollen is registered in airborne pollen samples in many parts of the world (Fehér & Jarai‐Komlodi, ; Lorenzoni et al , ; Kobzar, ; Murray et al , ; Ščevková et al , ; Çeter et al , ; Melgar et al , ; Xu et al , ; Ianovici et al , ). However, the use of aerobiological data in modelling seasonal variations in walnut yield has, to date, only been suggested in the literature (Fernandez‐Mensaque et al , ).…”