Relative efficiencies of the Burkard 7-Day, Rotorod and Burkard Personal samplers for Poaceae and Urticaceae pollen under field conditions

Abstract

Introduction. In aerobiological studies it is often necessary to compare concentration data recorded with different models of sampling instrument. Sampler efficiency typically varies from device to device, and depends on the target aerosol and local atmospheric conditions. To account for these differences inter-sampler correction factors may be applied, however for many pollen samplers and pollen taxa such correction factors do not exist and cannot be derived from existing published work. Materials and methods. In this study, the relative efficiencies of the Burkard 7-Day Recording Volumetric Spore Trap, the Sampling Technologies Rotorod Model 20, and the Burkard Personal Volumetric Air Sampler were evaluated for Urticaceae and Poaceae pollen under field conditions. The influence of wind speed and relative humidity on these efficiency relationships was also assessed. Data for the two pollen taxa were collected during 2010 and 2011-2012, respectively. Results. The three devices were found to record significantly different concentrations for both pollen taxa, with the exception of the 7-Day and Rotorod samplers for Poaceae pollen. Under the range of conditions present during the study, wind speed was found to only have a significant impact on inter-sampler relationships involving the vertically-orientated Burkard Personal sampler, while no interaction between relative efficiency and relative humidity was observed. Conclusions. Data collected with the three models of sampler should only be compared once the appropriate correction has been made, with wind speed taken into account where appropriate.

Regional and seasonal variation in airborne grass pollen levels between cities of Australia and New Zealand

“…Airborne pollen were counted within the expected grass pollen season of 92 days for Melbourne (October–December) over 13 of the 17 seasons, the others being full years, and between 88 and 134 days for the NZ sites (October–April) over one season. Both Burkard (Australia) and Rotorod (NZ) volumetric samplers were used, which for grass pollen, have been shown to be equivalent (Peel et al 2014). For a summary of sampling and counting techniques at each site see Table 1, references therein, and Haberle et al (2014).…”

Automatic and Online Pollen Monitoring

“…Other possible reasons of variability are that the virtual impactor and Hirst collector may have differences in their ability to collect particles depending on their aerodynamic features. The BAA500 is not constantly adjusted towards wind direction as it samples at high volume from all sides, whereas Hirst-type traps are low-volume samplers, and the orifice is always pointed in the direction of prevailing winds using a wind vane, which means that sampling efficiency can be influenced by wind speed [42]. As a result, there are some inherent differences in the data collected by the BAA500 and Hirst samplers, which should be kept in mind when comparing results.…”

General characteristics of airborne pollen in Montevideo city, Uruguay.

“…However, Montevideo airborne pollen index is lower than those recorded in other cities of the region such as La Plata (Nitiu, 2006), Buenos Aires (Nitiu et al, 2003), Mar del Plata (Latorre & Pérez, 1997;Pérez & Páez, 1998). Even considering the relative higher efficiency of suction samplers (Peel et al, 2014), those indexes are higher than in Montevideo. Furthermore, when overrepresented taxa are excluded from the sum (Latorre & Caccavari, 2009) total pollen values resemble those of Montevideo.…”

“…For instance, the highest peaks were registered in November-December for 2000, March for 2011-2012, AugustSeptember for 2012and February for 2013-2014 (Fig. 2).…”