The phenology of flowering and fluctuations of airborne pollen concentrations of selected trees in Poznań, 2003-2004

Abstract

The aim of the study was to describe the relationships between the flowering phase of selected tree species, whose pollen is known to be allergenic, and fluctuations in the pollen in the air, and to use results obtained for making allergological forecasts. Studies were conducted of five tree taxa: Populus, Ulmus, Salix, Aesculus, and Tilia, in the years 2003-2004. Aeropalinological analyses concerned the above mentioned genera, while in phenological studies specific species were investigated, i.e. the most common representatives of a given genus found in Poland, that is Populus wilsonii, Ulmus laevis Pall. C. K.Schneid., Salix caprea L., Aesculus hippocastanum L. and Tilia cordata Mill. Aerobiological monitoring was performed using a the volumetric method and phenological observations of flowering phases were made according to the Łukasiewicz method. While observing the emergence of individual phenological symptoms and measurements of the concentration of pollen of the investigated taxa in the air of Poznań, a distinct acceleration was observed in 2004, a year that was characterized by a milder winter. This applied not only to the species blooming in early spring, but also to the later ones. Pollen grains of the investigated taxa, except for Aesculus, appeared earlier in aeropalinological observations than the macroscopically observed beginning of flowering in selected trees. Apart from a poplar, the end of flowering in the other trees occurred each year earlier than would follow from the aerobiological observations. This may be explained by the abundance of species within a taxon, and the effect of medium - and long-distance transport.