Ragweed and mugwort pollen in Szczecin, Poland

Abstract

Ragweed (genus Ambrosia) and mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) pollen grains are known to be very potent aeroallergens, often noted to enter into cross reactions. The aim of the study was to analyse ragweed and mugwort pollen release in Szczecin (western Poland) during the period 2000-2003. Measurements were performed by the volumetric and gravimetric method. Pollen seasons were defined as the periods of 90% of the total catch. Of the 4 years studied, the lowest concentration of ragweed pollen was observed in 2000. In 2000, the annual ragweed pollen count was very high, threefold higher than in 2001. There was a high Ambrosia pollen count in 2003, with the highest daily value of 84 grains/m 3 . The mugwort pollen season started in the third 10-day period of July and lasted to the end of August in all of the years studied. Analysis of pollen deposition from different Szczecin cityÕs districts showed that the highest exposure to ragweed pollen allergens occurred in the Majowe district, which is related to the presence of numerous plants of Ambrosia in that district. The mugwort pollen deposition was more abundant in the _ Zelechowa district, which is an area with villas and gardens. Statistically significant correlations were found between the ragweed pollen count in the air and the maximum wind speed, air temperature and relative humidity and between the mugwort pollen count in the air and air temperature and relative humidity.

Statistical modelling of the main features of the Artemisia pollen season in Wrocław, Poland, during the 2002–2011 time period

“…The season tended to be shorter in the years of high annual sums (Table 1). Myszkowska et al (2011), based on long-term studies in Kraków (1991Kraków ( -2008, consider the pollen seasons of Artemisia there to be short (27-30 days), while in other cities of Poland, Artemisia pollen seasons are much longer (40-45 and even 54 days) (Weryszko-Chmielewska and Piotrowska 2004;Puc 2006;Stach et al 2007) and are comparable with the results obtained for Wrocław.…”

“…Artemisia pollen is commonly observed from the last week of July to the last week of August in north-west Europe (Spieksma et al 1980;Nilsson and Palmberg-Gotthard 1982;Goldberg et al 1988;Puc 2006;Stach et al 2007;Myszkowska et al 2011). In the southern parts of Europe, Artemisia pollen is observed from the first week of August to the first week of September (Spieksma and von Wahl 1991).…”

“…Mathematical models include different meteorological data, i.e. wind speed and direction, air humidity, sunshine duration, structure of the atmospheric boundary layer as well as the impact of terrain conditions and long-range transport (Giner et al 1999;Puc 2006;Laursen et al 2007). Recently, attention has been brought onto the dependency between the type of air circulation and the type of Artemisia pollen season and also the influence of agroclimatic factors (crop heat units (CHUs)) on the beginning of the pollen season (Malkiewicz et al 2013).…”

Forecasting ragweed pollen characteristics with nonparametric regression methods over the most polluted areas in Europe

“…In Europe, regions most highly polluted with ragweed pollen are the southern part of European Russia (Juhász 1998), the Ukraine (Turos et al 2009) and the Balkan Peninsula (Šikoparija et al 2009). By the end of the twentieth century ragweed had spread north all over Poland (Kasprzyk 2008;Stepalska et al 2008), reaching the northernmost point of Szczecin near the Baltic Sea (Puc 2006). However, the three main regions further south in Europe currently affected by Ambrosia are the Carpathian Basin (Chrenová et al 2009;Ianovici and Sîrbu 2007;Peternel et al 2006;Šikoparija et al 2009;Štefanič et al 2005), with peak values in Hungary (Makra et al 2004(Makra et al , 2005(Makra et al , 2008, the Rhône-Alpes region (Laaidi et al 2003) in France and the western part of the Po River Plain, mostly in the northwest part of the province of Milan (Bottero et al 1990;Mandrioli et al 1998).…”

Associations between weather conditions and ragweed pollen variations in Szeged, Hungary

“…Applying simple statistical analysis, several studies have detected signifi cant positive correlations of daily ragweed pollen counts with daily maximum temperature (20), daily mean temperature (6,7,(21)(22)(23), daily mean wind speed (23), and daily maximum wind speed (22) and signifi cant negative correlations with relative humidity (21)(22)(23) and rainfall (7,23,24). Furthermore, Ziska et al (25) established that the association between higher temperatures and higher ragweed pollen counts was stronger in urban than in rural locations.…”