Estimating the abundance of airborne pollen and fungal spores at variable elevations using an aircraft: How high can they fly?

Athanasios Damialis, Evangelos Kaimakamis, Maria Konoglou, Ioannis Akritidis, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Dimitrios Gioulekas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

70 Scopus citations

Abstract

Airborne pollen and fungal spores are monitored mainly in highly populated, urban environments, for allergy prevention purposes. However, their sources can frequently be located outside cities' fringes with more vegetation. So as to shed light to this paradox, we investigated the diversity and abundance of airborne pollen and fungal spores at various environmental regimes. We monitored pollen and spores using an aircraft and a car, at elevations from sea level to 2,000 m above ground, in the region of Thesssaloniki, Greece. We found a total of 24 pollen types and more than 15 spore types. Pollen and spores were detected throughout the elevational transect. Lower elevations exhibited higher pollen concentrations in only half of plant taxa and higher fungal spore concentrations in only Ustilago. Pinaceae and Quercus pollen were the most abundant recorded by airplane (>54% of the total). Poaceae pollen were the most abundant via car measurements (>77% of the total). Cladosporium and Alternaria spores were the most abundant in all cases (aircraft: >69% and >17%, car: >45% and >27%, respectively). We conclude that pollen and fungal spores can be diverse and abundant even outside the main source area, evidently because of long-distance transport incidents.

Original languageEnglish
Article number44535
JournalScientific Reports
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 Mar 2017

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Estimating the abundance of airborne pollen and fungal spores at variable elevations using an aircraft: How high can they fly?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this