Spatial and Temporal Variations of Airborne Poaceae Pollen along an Urbanization Gradient Assessed by Different Types of Pollen Traps

Grass pollen allergy is widespread all around the globe. With an increasing number of people living in cities, the examination of grass pollen levels within cities and their surroundings has increased in importance. The aim of this study was to examine different temporal and spatial scales of grass pollen concentration and deposition across urban and semi-rural environments in the years 2019 and 2020. We installed different types of pollen traps in the city of Ingolstadt (Bavaria, Germany) and its surroundings: volumetric pollen traps at roof level to assess background pollen concentration and gravimetric pollen traps and portable volumetric traps at street level. We considered grass pollen concentration and deposition in the context of land use and management. Our data showed that the grass pollen season in 2020 was longer and more intense than in 2019. Background grass pollen concentration was generally higher at the semi-rural site in both years: peak values were eight times (2019) and more than four times (2020) higher, and Seasonal Pollen Index was more than four times and almost three times higher in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Analyses of spatial variations measured at street level revealed higher numbers for pollen deposition and concentrations at semi-rural than at urban sites. Recorded values were linked to local vegetation and the management of grass areas surrounding the traps. Analyses of diurnal variations at street level in June 2019 showed that pollen concentration for all sites, independent of their degree of urbanization, were highest at noon (22.2 pollen grains/m³ vs. 8.5 pollen grains/m³ in the morning and 10.4 pollen grains/m³ in the evening). Diurnal variations at roof level showed similarities for the same days but differed when considering the whole season. Our data suggest the importance of the management of grass areas as areas cut earlier have a decreased amount of emitted pollen.

Download Full-text

Relationship between pollen morphology and chromosome numbers in Brazilian species of Lippia L. (Verbenaceae)

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências ◽

10.1590/s0001-37652013005000010 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 85 (1) ◽

pp. 147-157 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Saulo M. Sousa ◽

Patrícia M.O. Pierre ◽

Giovana A. Torres ◽

Lisete C. Davide ◽

Lyderson F. Viccini

Keyword(s):

Chromosome Numbers ◽

Pollen Morphology ◽

Pollen Grains ◽

Positive Association ◽

Single Species ◽

Morphological Data ◽

Prolate Spheroidal ◽

Oblate Spheroidal ◽

Exine Ornamentation ◽

Different Types

The pollen morphology and exine structure of 17 species of Lippia L. were investigated in this work using light and scanning electron microscopy. Among the species studied, 14 showed tricolporate pollen grains, two had tri- and tetracolporate pollen grains and a single species exhibited, only tetracolporate pollen. The amb ranged from triangular to square, and the shape varied from oblate-spheroidal to prolate-spheroidal. Three different types of exine ornamentation were observed: psilate, scabrate and perforate. In addition to morphological data, we found positive association between the chromosome numbers and size of pollen grains, and also between the length and width of the colpi. The results indicate that the characteristics of pollen grains in Lippia may be used as an additional taxonomic character of the genus.

Download Full-text

A global dataset of standardized moisture anomaly index incorporating snow dynamics from 1948 to 2010

10.5194/essd-2021-399 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lei Tian ◽

Baoqing Zhang ◽

Pute Wu

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Arctic Region ◽

Drought Indices ◽

Source Data ◽

Different Types ◽

Drying Trend ◽

Energy Processes ◽

Data Assimilation System ◽

Anomaly Index

Abstract. Drought indices are hard to balance in terms of versatility (effectiveness for multiple types of drought), flexibility of timescales, and inclusivity (to what extent they include all physical processes). A lack of consistent source data increases the difficulty of quantifying drought. Here, we present a global monthly drought dataset from 1948 to 2010 based on a multitype and multiscalar drought index, the standardized moisture anomaly index incorporating snow dynamics (SZIsnow), driven by systematic fields from an advanced data assimilation system. The proposed SZIsnow dataset includes different physical water‒energy processes, especially snow processes. Our evaluation of the dataset demonstrates its ability to distinguish different types of drought across different timescales. Our assessment also indicates that the dataset adequately captures droughts across different spatial scales. The consideration of snow processes improved the capability of SZIsnow, and the improvement is particularly evident over snow-covered high-latitude (e.g., Arctic region) and high-altitude areas (e.g., Tibetan Plateau). We found that 59.66 % of Earth's land area exhibited a drying trend between 1948 and 2010, and the remaining 40.34 % exhibited a wetting trend. Our results also show that the SZIsnow dataset successfully captured the large-scale drought events that occurred across the world; there were 525 drought events with an area larger than 500,000 square kilometers globally during the study period, of which nearly 70 % had a duration longer than 6 months. Therefore, this new drought dataset is well suited to monitoring, assessing, and characterizing drought, and can serve as a valuable resource for future drought studies.

Download Full-text

69 Time-dependent release of allergens from grass-pollen grains

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology ◽

10.1016/0091-6749(83)90193-8 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 71 (1) ◽

pp. 106

Author(s):

H MAASCH ◽

K HAESELER ◽

W GEISSLER ◽

B FISCHER ◽

U WAHN

Keyword(s):

Grass Pollen ◽

Pollen Grains ◽

Time Dependent

Download Full-text

The late flowering of invasive species contributes to the increase of Artemisia allergenic pollen in autumn: an analysis of 25 years of aerobiological data (1995–2019) in Trentino-Alto Adige (Northern Italy)

Aerobiologia ◽

10.1007/s10453-020-09663-7 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (4) ◽

pp. 669-682 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Antonella Cristofori ◽

Edith Bucher ◽

Michele Rossi ◽

Fabiana Cristofolini ◽

Veronika Kofler ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Invasive Species ◽

Pollen Season ◽

Airborne Pollen ◽

Pollen Grains ◽

Late Summer ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Allergenic Pollen ◽

Pollen Concentration ◽

Pollen Concentrations ◽

Negative Impacts

AbstractArtemisia pollen is an important aeroallergen in late summer, especially in central and eastern Europe where distinct anemophilous Artemisia spp. produce high amounts of pollen grains. The study aims at: (i) analyzing the temporal pattern of and changes in the Artemisia spp. pollen season; (ii) identifying the Artemisia species responsible for the local airborne pollen load.Daily pollen concentration of Artemisia spp. was analyzed at two sites (BZ and SM) in Trentino-Alto Adige, North Italy, from 1995 to 2019.The analysis of airborne Artemisia pollen concentrations evidences the presence of a bimodal curve, with two peaks, in August and September, respectively. The magnitude of peak concentrations varies across the studied time span for both sites: the maximum concentration at the September peak increases significantly for both the BZ (p < 0.05) and SM (p < 0.001) site. The first peak in the pollen calendar is attributable to native Artemisia species, with A. vulgaris as the most abundant; the second peak is mostly represented by the invasive species A. annua and A. verlotiorum (in constant proportion along the years), which are causing a considerable increase in pollen concentration in the late pollen season in recent years.. The spread of these species can affect human health, increasing the length and severity of allergenic pollen exposure in autumn, as well as plant biodiversity in both natural and cultivated areas, with negative impacts on, e.g., Natura 2000 protected sites and crops.

Download Full-text

Patronage and Rationalization: Reform to Criminal Procedure and the Lower Courts in Chile

Law & Social Inquiry ◽

10.1111/lsi.12272 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 42 (02) ◽

pp. 423-449 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jeanne Hersant

Keyword(s):

Justice System ◽

Frame Analysis ◽

Criminal Procedure ◽

Criminal Courts ◽

Street Level ◽

Santiago De Chile ◽

Different Types ◽

Lower Courts ◽

Depth Interviews ◽

Street Level Bureaucracy

This article analyzes how the lower criminal courts in Chile transitioned from an inquisitorial to an adversarial justice system between 2000 and 2005 as part of the Criminal Procedure Reform. Drawing on the frame analysis of the street-level bureaucracy and judicial ethnography, I examine the transition between two different types of judicial bureaucracy from the perspective of the actors who implemented the reform. The study is based on in-depth interviews with officials and judges of both inquisitorial and adversarial courts, administrative managers of the new courts, and actors who designed the administrative reorganization of lower criminal courts. The study involved a three-month, weekly observation in an inquisitorial court in Santiago de Chile. The article emphasizes the specificity of the Chilean judiciary, where both inquisitorial and adversarial criminal courts still coexist.

Download Full-text

A new multicopter-based unmanned aerial system for pollen and spores collection in the atmospheric boundary layer

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques ◽

10.5194/amt-12-1581-2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 1581-1598 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Claudio Crazzolara ◽

Martin Ebner ◽

Andreas Platis ◽

Tatiana Miranda ◽

Jens Bange ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Boundary Layer ◽

Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Aerosol Particles ◽

Pollen Grains ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Unmanned Aerial System ◽

Pollen Concentration ◽

Concentration Data ◽

Particle Collection

Abstract. The application of a new particle collection system (PCS) developed in-house and operated on board a commercially available multicopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is presented as a new unmanned aerial system (UAS) approach for in situ measurement of the concentration of aerosol particles such as pollen grains and spores in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). A newly developed impactor is used for high-efficiency particle extraction on board the multicopter UAV. An airflow volume of 0.2 m3 min−1 through the impactor is provided by a battery-powered blower and measured with an on-board mass flow sensor. A bell-mouth-shaped air inlet of the PCS is arranged and oriented on the multicopter UAV to provide substantial isokinetic sampling conditions by advantageously using the airflow pattern generated by the propellers of the multicopter UAV. More than 30 aerosol particle collection flights were carried out near Tübingen in March 2017 at altitudes of up to 300 m above ground level (a.g.l.), each with a sampled air volume of 2 m3. Pollen grains and spores of various genera, as well as large (>20 µm) opaque particles and fine dust particles, were collected, and specific concentrations of up to 100 particles per m3 were determined by visual microscopic analysis. The pollen concentration values measured with the new UAS match well with the pollen concentration data published by the Stiftung Deutscher Polleninformationsdienst (PID) and by MeteoSwiss. A major advantage of the new multicopter-based UAS is the possibility of the identification of collected aerosol particles and the measurement of their concentration with high temporal and spatial resolutions, which can be used inter alia to improve the database for modelling the propagation of aerosol particles in the ABL.

Download Full-text

Diurnal variations and source apportionment of ozone at the summit of Mount Huang, a rural site in Eastern China

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8483 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jinhui Gao

Keyword(s):

Boundary Layer ◽

Diurnal Variation ◽

Source Apportionment ◽

Southern China ◽

Eastern China ◽

Vertical Mixing ◽

Diurnal Variations ◽

Rural Site ◽

Positive Contribution ◽

Negative Contribution

Comprehensive measurements were conducted at the summit of Mount (Mt.) Huang, a rural site located in eastern China during the summer of 2011. They observed that ozone showed pronounced diurnal variations with high concentrations at night and low values during daytime. The Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model was applied to simulate the ozone concentrations at Mt. Huang in June 2011. With processes analysis and online ozone tagging method we coupled into the model system, the causes of this diurnal pattern and the contributions from different source regions were investigated. Our results showed that boundary layer diurnal cycle played an important role in driving the ozone diurnal variation. Further analysis showed that the negative contribution of vertical mixing was significant, resulting in the ozone decrease during the daytime. In contrast, ozone increased at night owing to the significant positive contribution of advection. This shifting of major factor between vertical mixing and advection formed this diurnal variation. Ozone source apportionment results indicated that approximately half was provided by inflow effect of ozone from outside the model domain (O3-INFLOW) and the other half was formed by ozone precursors (O3-PBL) emitted in eastern, central, and southern China. In the O3-PBL, 3.0% of the ozone was from Mt. Huang reflecting the small local contribution (O3-LOC) and the non-local contributions (O3-NLOC) accounted for 41.6%, in which ozone from the southerly regions contributed significantly, for example, 9.9% of the ozone originating from Jiangxi, representing the highest geographical contributor. Because the origin and variation of O3-NLOC was highly related to the diurnal movements in boundary layer, the similar diurnal patterns between O3-NLOC and total ozone both indicated the direct influence of O3-NLOC and the importance of boundary layer diurnal variations in the formation of such distinct diurnal ozone variations at Mt. Huang.

Download Full-text

Airborne Birch and Grass Pollen Allergens in Street-Level Shops

Indoor Air ◽

10.1034/j.1600-0668.2001.110405.x ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 241-245 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

LEIF HOLMQUIST1 ◽

JAN WEINER2 ◽

OLOF VESTERBERG1*

Keyword(s):

Grass Pollen ◽

Pollen Allergens ◽

Street Level

Download Full-text

Tapetum character states: analytical keys for tapetum types and activities

Canadian Journal of Botany ◽

10.1139/b97-859 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 75 (9) ◽

pp. 1448-1459 ◽

Cited By ~ 76

Author(s):

E. Pacini

Keyword(s):

Pollen Development ◽

Cell Walls ◽

Pollen Grains ◽

Cell Types ◽

Plastid Differentiation ◽

Pollen Coat ◽

Tapetal Cells ◽

Different Types ◽

Compound Pollen ◽

Pollen Formation

The different types of tapetum found in the spermatophyta are described, along with associated characters. The characters (taken singly, pairwise, or in multiple combinations) are (i) tapetum types; (ii) cell walls, tapetum types, and loculus; (iii) tapetal cells individually, tapetum types, and loculus; (iv) number of pollen grains enveloped by tapetal cells and type of pollen dispersing unit; (v) cell types and tapetum types; (vi) number of nuclei per cell and tapetum type; (vii) cycles of hyperactivity; (viii) exine formation; (ix) orbicles; (x) peritapetal membrane; (xi) plastid differentiation; (xii) stage of pollen development in which tapetal cells degenerate and type of pollen coat; (xiii) storage vacuoles; (xiv) sporophytic proteins; and (xv) devices of tapetal origin responsible for compound pollen formation and pollination. Examples are given and an analytical key of structural and functional diversity is provided as a helpful approach to the study of the tapetum. Key words: tapetum types, activities, pollen dispersing units.

Download Full-text

Pollen sources in the Bojanów forest complex identified on honeybee pollen load by microscopic analysis

Acta Agrobotanica ◽

10.5586/aa.1724 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 70 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Ernest Stawiarz ◽

Beata Żuraw ◽

Agnieszka Marut

Keyword(s):

Trifolium Repens ◽

Robinia Pseudoacacia ◽

Microscopic Analysis ◽

Pollen Grains ◽

Early Spring ◽

Pollen Load ◽

Pollen Loads ◽

Pollinating Insects ◽

Pollen Traps ◽

Plant Families

The aim of this study was to determine sources of pollen for the honeybee in the Bojanów forest complex, Nowa Dęba Forest District (southeastern Poland). Sampling of pollen loads from bees extended from the beginning of May until the end of September 2016 and was carried out at 7-day intervals using pollen traps mounted at the entrance of beehives. A total of 73 pollen load samples were collected from the study area.Fifty-nine taxa from 31 plant families were identified in the analyzed material. From 4 to 21 taxa (average 9.5) were recorded in one sample. The pollen of Brassicaceae (“others”), Taraxacum type, Solidago type, and Rumex had the highest frequency in the pollen loads examined. Apart from these four taxa, pollen grains of Rubus type, Poaceae (“others”), Calluna, Fagopyrum, Trifolium repens s. l., Phacelia, Aster type, Melampyrum, Quercus, Cornus, and Veronica were recorded in the dominant pollen group. The forest habitat taxa that provided pollen rewards to honeybees in the Bojanów forest complex were the following: Rubus, Calluna, Prunus, Tilia, Frangula alnus, Pinus, Quercus, Cornus, Robinia pseudoacacia, Salix, and Vaccinium. Apart from forest vegetation, the species from meadows and wastelands adjacent to this forest complex, represented by Taraxacum, Rumex, Plantago, Poaceae, Trifolium repens, and Solidago, proved to be an important source of pollen. The study indicates that forest communities are a valuable source of pollen for pollinating insects from early spring through to late fall.

Download Full-text