TY - JOUR
T1 - Near-ground effect of height on pollen exposure
AU - Rojo, Jesús
AU - Oteros, Jose
AU - Pérez-Badia, Rosa
AU - Cervigón, Patricia
AU - Ferencova, Zuzana
AU - Gutiérrez-Bustillo, A. Monserrat
AU - Bergmann, Karl Christian
AU - Oliver, Gilles
AU - Thibaudon, Michel
AU - Albertini, Roberto
AU - Rodríguez-De la Cruz, David
AU - Sánchez-Reyes, Estefanía
AU - Sánchez-Sánchez, José
AU - Pessi, Anna Mari
AU - Reiniharju, Jukka
AU - Saarto, Annika
AU - Calderón, M. Carmen
AU - Guerrero, César
AU - Berra, Daniele
AU - Bonini, Maira
AU - Chiodini, Elena
AU - Fernández-González, Delia
AU - García, José
AU - Trigo, M. Mar
AU - Myszkowska, Dorota
AU - Fernández-Rodríguez, Santiago
AU - Tormo-Molina, Rafael
AU - Damialis, Athanasios
AU - Kolek, Franziska
AU - Traidl-Hoffmann, Claudia
AU - Severova, Elena
AU - Caeiro, Elsa
AU - Ribeiro, Helena
AU - Magyar, Donát
AU - Makra, László
AU - Udvardy, Orsolya
AU - Alcázar, Purificación
AU - Galán, Carmen
AU - Borycka, Katarzyna
AU - Kasprzyk, Idalia
AU - Newbigin, Ed
AU - Adams-Groom, Beverley
AU - Apangu, Godfrey P.
AU - Frisk, Carl A.
AU - Skjøth, Carsten A.
AU - Radišić, Predrag
AU - Šikoparija, Branko
AU - Celenk, Sevcan
AU - Schmidt-Weber, Carsten B.
AU - Buters, Jeroen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2019/7
Y1 - 2019/7
N2 - The effect of height on pollen concentration is not well documented and little is known about the near-ground vertical profile of airborne pollen. This is important as most measuring stations are on roofs, but patient exposure is at ground level. Our study used a big data approach to estimate the near-ground vertical profile of pollen concentrations based on a global study of paired stations located at different heights. We analyzed paired sampling stations located at different heights between 1.5 and 50 m above ground level (AGL). This provided pollen data from 59 Hirst-type volumetric traps from 25 different areas, mainly in Europe, but also covering North America and Australia, resulting in about 2,000,000 daily pollen concentrations analyzed. The daily ratio of the amounts of pollen from different heights per location was used, and the values of the lower station were divided by the higher station. The lower station of paired traps recorded more pollen than the higher trap. However, while the effect of height on pollen concentration was clear, it was also limited (average ratio 1.3, range 0.7–2.2). The standard deviation of the pollen ratio was highly variable when the lower station was located close to the ground level (below 10 m AGL). We show that pollen concentrations measured at >10 m are representative for background near-ground levels.
AB - The effect of height on pollen concentration is not well documented and little is known about the near-ground vertical profile of airborne pollen. This is important as most measuring stations are on roofs, but patient exposure is at ground level. Our study used a big data approach to estimate the near-ground vertical profile of pollen concentrations based on a global study of paired stations located at different heights. We analyzed paired sampling stations located at different heights between 1.5 and 50 m above ground level (AGL). This provided pollen data from 59 Hirst-type volumetric traps from 25 different areas, mainly in Europe, but also covering North America and Australia, resulting in about 2,000,000 daily pollen concentrations analyzed. The daily ratio of the amounts of pollen from different heights per location was used, and the values of the lower station were divided by the higher station. The lower station of paired traps recorded more pollen than the higher trap. However, while the effect of height on pollen concentration was clear, it was also limited (average ratio 1.3, range 0.7–2.2). The standard deviation of the pollen ratio was highly variable when the lower station was located close to the ground level (below 10 m AGL). We show that pollen concentrations measured at >10 m are representative for background near-ground levels.
KW - Aerobiology
KW - Big data
KW - Height
KW - Monitoring network
KW - Pollen
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85065156942
U2 - 10.1016/j.envres.2019.04.027
DO - 10.1016/j.envres.2019.04.027
M3 - Article
C2 - 31077991
AN - SCOPUS:85065156942
SN - 0013-9351
VL - 174
SP - 160
EP - 169
JO - Environmental Research
JF - Environmental Research
ER -