Abstract
Airborne pollen reflects local vegetative composition and is a proxy for flowering phase. Long-term pollen data might reflect changes in biodiversity and phenology, attributable also to the effect of climate change. The present study, based on pollen data collected within the Italian aerobiological network POLLnet, aimed to verify whether there is any evidence of temporal changes in pollen season timing and its relation with meteorological variables. To this purpose, nine stations located in North and Central Italy were selected, and twelve pollen taxa, both arboreal and herbaceous, were considered. For each taxon and station, 11–17-year datasets of airborne pollen concentration within the period 2000–2016 were analysed. Four different pollen season descriptors were elaborated (start, end and peak date, season length) and analysed their temporal trend, also in relation to temperature and precipitation. Overall, the results showed a negative temporal trend in pollen season starting date, which indicates a tendency towards an earlier flowering for Corylus, Quercus, Gramineae and Urticaceae in all stations (even if statistically significant in six out of 36 cases). The effect of meteorological parameters was evidenced by negative correlations between pollen season starting date and temperature. With the exception of Olea, Ambrosia and Artemisia, all the remaining pollen taxa showed significant (negative) correlations between pollen season start date and average temperature of the previous months in at least half of the stations. As for precipitation, no relevant correlations were detected with pollen season parameters. The results are also interpreted considering the different biogeographic areas in which the nine stations are located. Long-term pollen dataset is useful in phenological studies and for the detection of climate change effects.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bucher, E., Bottarelli, L., De Gironimo, V., Ivaldi, C., Lessi, S., Moretti, O., et al. (2017). ISPRA_Manuali e Linee Guida 151/2017; ISBN: 978-88-448-0820-4. http://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it/pubblicazioni/manuali-e-linee-guida/pollnet-linee-guida-per-il-monitoraggio-aerobiologico. Accessed November 2018.
Clot, B. (2003). Trends in airborne pollen. An overview of 21 years of data in Neuchatel (Switzerland). Aerobiologia,19, 227–234. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AERO.0000006572.53105.17.
D’Amato, M., Cecchi, L., Annesi-Maesano, I., & D’Amato, G. (2018). News on climate change, air pollution, and allergic triggers of asthma. Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology,28(2), 91–97. https://doi.org/10.18176/jiaci.0228.
Damialis, A., Halley, J. M., Gioulekas, D., & Vokou, D. (2007). Long-term trends in atmospheric pollen levels in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. Atmospheric Environment,41, 7011–7021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.05.009.
EEA-European Environment Agency. (2016a). Biogeographical regions maps. https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/biogeographical-regions-in-europe-2.
EEA-European Environment Agency. (2016b). Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016. An indicator-based report. EEA Report No 1/2017. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. ISBN 978-92-9213-835-6. https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/climate-change-impacts-and-vulnerability-2016. Accessed November 2018.
Frank, U., & Ernst, D. (2015). Klimafaktoren–welche Effekte haben sie auf die Allergenität von Pollen? Climate factors—Which effects do they have on the allergenicity of pollen? Allergologie 38(12). ISSN: 0344-5062.
Fuhrmann, C. M., Sugg, M. M., & Konrad, C. E. (2016). Airborne pollen characteristics and the influence of temperature and precipitation in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA (1999–2012). Aerobiologia,2016(32), 683–696. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-016-9442-6.
Galán, C., Alcázar, P., Oteros, J., García-Mozo, H., Aira, M. J., Belmonte, J., et al. (2016). Airborne pollen trends in the Iberian Peninsula. Science of the Total Environment,550, 53–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.01.069.
Galan, C., Smith, M., Thibaudon, M., Frenguelli, G., Oteros, J., Gehrig, R., et al. (2014). Pollen monitoring: Minimum requirements and reproducibility of analysis. Aerobiologia,30, 385–395. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-014-9335-5.
Garcia-Mozo, H., Mestre, A., & Galan, C. (2010). Phenological trends in southern Spain: A response to climate change. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology,150(2010), 575–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2010.01.023.
IPCC. (2014). Climate change 2014: Synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. In: Core Writing Team, R. K. Pachauri & L. A. Meyer (eds.) (p. 151). Geneva: IPCC. http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/. Accessed November 23 2018.
ISBN-13: 978-0-615-92915-6 (print) ISBN-10: 0615929168 (digital). http://www.worldallergy.org/UserFiles/file/WhiteBook2-2013-v8.pdf. Accessed November 23 2018.
Lind, T., Ekebom, A., Alm Kübler, K., Östensson, P., Bellander, T., & Lõhmus, M. (2016). Pollen season trends (1973–2013) in Stockholm area, Sweden. PLoS ONE,11(11), e0166887. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166887.
Majeed, H. T., Periago, C., Alarcon, M., & Belmonte, J. (2018). Airborne pollen parameters and their relationship with meteorological variables in NE Iberian Peninsula. Aerobiologia,34, 375–388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-018-9520-z.
Parmesan, C., & Yohe, G. (2003). A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems. Nature,421, 37–42. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01286.
R Core Team. (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/.
Recio, M., Rodríguez-Rajo, F. J., Jato, M. V., Trigo, M. M., & Cabezudo, B. (2009). The effect of recent climatic trends on Urticaceae pollination in two bioclimatically different areas in the Iberian Peninsula: Malaga and Vigo. Climatic Change,97, 215–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-009-9620-4.
Richardson, B. A., Chaney, L., Shaw, N. L., & Still, S. M. (2017). Will phenotypic plasticity affecting flowering phenology keep pace with climate change? Global Change Biology,23(6), 2499–2508. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13532.
Rogers, C. A., Wayne, P. M., Macklin, E. A., Muilenberg, M. L., Wagner, C. J., Epstein, P. R., et al. (2006). Interaction of the onset of spring and elevated atmospheric CO2 on Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) Pollen production. Environmental Health Perspectives,114, 6. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.8549.
Stach, A., Smith, M., Baena, J. P., & Emberlin, J. (2008). Longterm and short-term forecast models for Poaceae (grass) pollen in Poznan´, Poland, constructed using regression analysis. Environmental and Experimental Botany,62(3), 323–332.
Ugolotti, M., Pasquarella, C., Vitali, P., Smith, M., & Albertini, R. (2015). Characteristics and trends of selected pollen seasons recorded in Parma (Northern Italy) from 1994 to 2011. Aerobiologia,31(3), 341–352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-015-9368-4.
Walthers, G. R. (2010). Community and ecosystem responses to recent climate change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,365, 2019–2024. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0021.
Wan, S., Yuan, T., Bowdish, S., Wallace, L., Russel, S. D., & Luo, Y. (2002). Response of an allergenic species, Ambrosia psilostachya (Asteraceae), to experimental warming and clipping: Implications for public health. American Journal of Botany,89(11), 1843–1846. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107272859.007.
WAO-World Allergy Organization. (2013). White book on allergy: Update 2013.
Zhang, Y., Bielory, L., Mi, Z., Cai, T., Robock, A., & Georgopoulos, P. (2015). Allergenic pollen season variations in the past two decades under changing climate in the United States. Global Change Biology,21, 1581–1589. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12755.
Ziello, C., Sparks, T. H., Estrella, N., Belmonte, J., Bergmann, K. C., et al. (2012). Changes to airborne pollen counts across Europe. PLoS ONE,7(4), e34076. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0034076.
Ziska, L. H. (2016). Impacts of climate change on allergen seasonality. In P. J. Beggs (Ed.), Impacts of climate change on allergens and allergic diseases (pp. 92–112). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107272859.007.
Ziska, H. L., Makra, L., Harry, S. K., Bruffaerts, N., Hendrickx, M., Coates, F., et al. (2019). Temperature-related changes in airborne allergenic pollen abundance and seasonality across the northern hemisphere: A retrospective data analysis. Lancet Planet Health,3, e124–e131.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank all the data contributors, in particular Maria Cristina Viola, Antonella Cristofori, Fabio Zottele, Giambattista Toller, Christian Vian, Veronika Kofler, Giancarlo Pinto, Federica Fontana.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cristofolini, F., Anelli, P., Billi, B.M. et al. Temporal trends in airborne pollen seasonality: evidence from the Italian POLLnet network data. Aerobiologia 36, 63–70 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-019-09609-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-019-09609-8