Frequency and distribution of insect pollinated pollen in air samples of Hirst-type volumetric pollen and spore traps in Austria from 2008 to 2017

Abstract

Standard Hirst-type automated pollen and spore traps are used in aerobiology to assess ambient pollen concentrations with a focus on allergenic taxa, which are wind-pollinated. The relationship of insect to wind pollinated pollen concentrations has not been examined. We analysed the pollen data from the pollen seasons (1 April–31 August) 2008–2017 of seven pollen traps distributed across Austria located at different elevations. The included pollen monitoring stations cover the diversity of the countries’ landscape: from large cities to alpine areas. The data was grouped into taxa known as insect (39 taxa) and taxa known as wind pollinated (43 taxa). We found a low occurrence of insect pollinated pollen in comparison to wind pollinated pollen in all stations. The mean pollen concentration of insect pollinated pollen was low and ranged from 0 to 22 pollen/m³ air. Correlation coefficients showed the dependence of the results on the parameters year, station and year × station, thus explaining the variability of the data. However, differences in abundances of insect and wind pollinated pollen concern also the time of the year with later peaks (May–June) of insect pollinated pollen in comparison to wind pollinated pollen (April). Insect pollinated pollen shows a different timing and quantitative aspect in comparison to wind pollinated pollen in air samples of Hirst-type pollen traps and thus a presumed dependence on local factors. These results should be taken into account when interpreting ancient pollen spectra to reconstruct palaeoenvironments and when monitoring recent climate change using aerobiological archives.

Keywords:

• insect pollinated pollen
• pollen concentrations
• Hirst-type volumetric traps
• air samples
• outdoor air

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all the data suppliers including Roland Schmidt, Helmut Zwander, Ulrike Langmann, Margit Langanger, Siegfried Jäger, Notburga Oeggl-Wahlmüller and the local pollen information services in Austria: The pollen information service in Carinthia, Upper Austria, Salzburg and Tyrol, who provided the fundament for the evaluation herein with their aerobiological routine work in addition to the evaluations performed in Vienna by our team. The authors also thank Alexander Kowarik (Statistics Austria, Vienna, Austria) for the support in statistical analyses. We thank two anonymous reviewers for improving our manuscript and valuable input, especially one of them, whose efforts smoothened the manuscript text. In addition, the authors are grateful for the improvements, discussions and the feedback from the handling editor, Thomas Denk, for this publication.

Furthermore, it is our wish to dedicate this work to our teacher in (palaeo)palynology, Ao.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr Reinhard Zetter, who has guided two of us (KB and MaBa) on our way into the world of pollen.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.