Accumulative air temperature as a predicting parameter for daily airborne olive pollen (Olea europaea L.) during the pre‐peak period in Málaga (Western Mediterranean area)

Abstract

Although olive pollen is one of the most widespread aeroallergens in the Mediterranean area, very few studies present predictive models. We have already seen that in Málaga (Southern Spain) the meteorological variables which have the greatest influence on airborne pollen concentrations during the pre‐peak period are accumulated rainfall and mean temperatures from the chilling requirement for flowers buds initiation. This work presents the simple and multiple linear regressions obtained by using daily pollen concentrations as a dependent variable and the daily values of the above mentioned meteorological parameters as independent variables. When establishing an overall predictive model, we chose the equation of the simple linear regression pollen‐accumulated temperatures obtained during 1992–94 (y = 0.003x‐3.863) since this provided the greatest lineal fitting.