ACTA BOTANICA UNIVERSITATIS COMENIANAE Volume 50 2015 COMENIUS UNIVERSITY IN BRATISLAVA The journal was edited with the title / Časopis bol vydávaný pod názvom Acta Facultatis Rerum Naturalium Universitatis Comenianae, Botanica Editor in Chief / Predseda redakčnej rady Karol Mičieta; [email protected] Executive Editor / Výkonný redaktor Soňa Jančovičová, [email protected] Editorial Board / Členovia redakčnej rady Dana Bernátová, Danica Černušáková, Katarína Mišíková, Jana Ščevková Editor Ship / Adresa redakcie Redakcia Acta Botanica Universitatis Comenianae, Révová 39, SK-811 02 Bratislava 1 Tel. ++421 2 54411541 Fax ++421 2 54415603 Published by / Vydavateľ © Comenius University in Bratislava, 2015 © Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, 2015 ISBN 978-80-223-4082-3 ISSN 0524-2371 Acta Botanica Universitatis Comenianae Vol. 50, 2015 AEROBIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF AIRBORNE POLLEN AND FUNGAL SPORE FALL IN BRATISLAVA IN 2015 Jana Ščevková●, Jozef Dušička, Karol Mičieta Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Botany, Révová 39, 811 02 Bratislava, Slovakia Received 9 November 2015; Received in revised from 18 November; Accepted 8 December 2015 Abstract In the atmosphere of Bratislava, the spectrum and quantity of pollen grains and fungal spores were analysed during the vegetation period of the year 2015 using a Burkard volumetric pollen trap. During the study period, the annual total of 27 747 pollen grains, belonging to 28 higher plant taxa and 108 029 spores belonging to six fungal taxa were recorded. The most abundant pollen grains were those of Urticaceae, Cupressaceae/Taxaceae, Betula, Fraxinus, Pinus, Poaceae and Ambrosia taxa, while Cladosporium, Alternaria and Epicoccum were the most abundant fungal spores in the air of Bratislava. The highest monthly total pollen concentration was recorded in April, while the highest total monthly spore concentration was recorded in July. Out of all analysed meteorological parameters, relative humidity and temperature seem to be the most important factors affecting the daily airborne pollen and spore concentrations, respectively. Key words: higher plants, fungi, aerobiology, pollen calendar Introduction Hypersensitivity to pollen grains and fungal spores belong to seasonal allergic diseases, occurrence of which relates to a blooming period of allergenic plants and sporulating period of allergenic fungi. In the air of Bratislava, pollen grains and fungal spores with the ability to trigger the symptoms of respiratory allergy are presented throughout the entire vegetation period. Trees bloom in spring, especially in March and April. Grasses bloom in later spring, since the second half of May till the second half of June. Later summer-early autumn (August, September) is the time of year when weeds bloom (Jurko 1990). In Bratislava just like in other European countries, the fruiting period of allergenic fungi lasts from February to October (Corden, Millington 2001; Munuera Giner et al. 2001; Corden et al. 2003; Rizzi- Longo et al. 2009). Information concerning the occurrence of pollen grains and spores in the air is very important for the course of medical treatment and prophylaxis. In Bratislava, continuous monitoring of airborne pollen grains and fungal spores has been conducted since 2002. The research reported in this paper aims to determine the spectrum and quantity of pollen grains and fungal spores in the air of Bratislava in the year 2015 and to determine the beginning, peak, and end dates for the key airborne pollen and spore seasons. Material and Methods The study was carried out in the city of Bratislava, situated in the southwestern part of Slovakia. The city has a warm and dry continental climate with average temperatures ranging from -1 to -4 ºC in January and from 19.5 to 20.5 ºC in July. The annual rainfall varies from 530 to 650 mm, as average, falling mostly in summer (May-July) (Hrvoľ 2014). The daily mean pollen/spore concentrations were monitored from February to October 2015 using a Burkard 7-day volumetric pollen trap. The sampler is situated on the flat roof of the Department of ● Corresponding author: Jana Ščevková; [email protected] 3 Botany, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava at the height of 10 m above ground at the altitude of 183 m a. s. l. Sampling method, slide preparation, and data interpretation were performed according to the standard method adopted by the British Aerobiology Federation (1995). Pollen grains and fungal spores were counted in 12 vertical transects per slide under a light microscope at a magnification of × 400 following the methods outlined by Ščevková et al. (2010). Pollen and spore concentrations were expressed as mean daily pollen/spore concentrations per cubic meter of air. The main pollen/spore seasons (MPS/MSS) of selected pollen/spore types were established according to method by Nilsson, Persson (1981), which defines the main pollen/spore season as the period from which the sum of concentrations reaches 5% of the annual total pollen/spores until the time when the sum reaches 95%. To determine how changes in daily pollen/spore concentrations were affected by meteorological conditions, daily values of mean air temperature (ºC), relative humidity (%) and rainfall (mm) were taken into consideration. Meteorological data were recorded at the meteorological station of the Department of Astronomy, Physics of the Earth and Meteorology of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Infor- matics of Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina situated 1 km NW of our sampling site. Spearman’s correlation coefficients were used to establish the relationship between the daily pollen/ spore concentration of selected taxa and meteorological parameters. All data analyses were carried out in Statistica 12. Results and Discussion The annual total number of sampled pollen grains and fungal spores in the air of Bratislava was 27 747 and 108 029, respectively. The identified pollen grains belong to 28 vascular plant taxa, including 20 trees and/or shrubs and eight herbaceous species. The observed spores belong to six taxa of patho- genic fungi (Tab. 1). On the basis of the annual total pollen concentrations for the study period, as the most abundant pollen types in the air of Bratislava were identified: Urticaceae (20.9 % of the total), Cupressace/Taxaceae (named in the tables and figures as Cupressaceae, 13.5 %), Betula (9.7 %), Fraxinus (8.7 %), Pinus (8.7 %), Poaceae (7.3 %) and Ambrosia (6.8 %). Pollen types from Aesculus, Castanea, Fagus, Larix, Platanus and Ulmus were represented with a small quantity (annual total pollen concentration <120 pollen grains) in the air of Bratislava (Tab. 1). Based on the aeropalynological monitoring performed in Bratislava during the period 2002–2009 the most abundant pollen types were Betula, Urticaceae, Cupressaceae/Taxaceae, Populus, Pinus, Poaceae and Ambrosia (Ščevková et al. 2010). Variability among pollen seasons in terms of airborne pollen quantity corresponds with the biological rhythms of the plants and meteorological conditions. Ščevková et al. (2010) hints at the possibility of cyclic alteration in pollen grain production, with years of high and low production, respectively. Out of all airborne fungal spores observed in the study area, the most abundant were those of Cladospo- rium (81.8 %), Alternaria (10.1 %) and Epicoccum (6.5 %) (Tab. 1). This is in accordance with the results obtained by Chrenová et al. (2004) who performed the aeromycological survey in the air of Bratislava from February to October 2003. There was a remarkable increase in the number of pollen grains from February to April (Tab. 1, Fig. 1) with the highest concentration of pollen grains recorded in April (7 139 pollen grains, 25.7 % of total); arboreal taxa flowering in spring were the most important contributors. Pollen concentration began markedly to decrease afterwards in May. In our study, there was another increase in number of pollen grains from July to August due to the flowering of herbaceous taxa. In September, the pollen concentration once again started to decrease (Tab. 1, Fig. 1). In February and March, the most abundant pollen types in the air of Bratislava were those of Cupres- saceae /Taxaceae and Alnus (Tab. 1). In April, Betula, Fraxinus and Populus were the most important pollen contributors. In May, a remarkable decrease of pollen amount was closely related to the ending of the main pollen season of most trees. In May, pollen grains of Pinus were the most abundant in the air of Bratislava. The most frequent pollen grains recorded in June were those of Poaceae, while in July and August the dominant pollen types were of the synanthropic and ruderal entities, such as 4 Urticaceae and Ambrosia. Pollen grains of invasive plant Ambrosia artemisiifolia were abundant also in September (Tab. 1). Tab. 1. Pollen/spore calendar of the monitored taxa in the air of Bratislava and related monthly pollen/spore concentrations, year 2015 Pollen-producing Percentage FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT taxa of total Acer - - 209 - - - - - - 0.8 Aesculus - - 23 75 - - - - - 0.4 Alnus 52 653 2 - - - - - - 2.5 Ambrosia - - - - - 2 965 900 17 6.8 Artemisia - - - - - 7 201 26 - 0.8 Betula - 7 2 683 15 - - - - - 9.7 Carpinus - - 204 - - - - - - 0.7 Castanea - - - - 95 27 - - - 0.4 Chenopodiaceae - - - - 39 71 221 137 1 1.7 Corylus 31 202 - - - - - - - 0.8 Cupressaceae 9 3 269 439 7 - 3 9 8 - 13.5 Fagus - - 81 10 - - - - - 0.3 Fraxinus - 666 1 753