engleski

Constructing ragweed pollen source inventories

The Pannonian Plain (PP) and parts of France are the largest sources of airborne ragweed pollen in Europe. Atmospheric transport of airborne ragweed pollen within and from these regions can be investigated using atmospheric transport models. The performance of such models is sensitive to the quality of the emissions data. This study aims to: (1) produce a simple methodology for calculating high quality source inventories for airborne ragweed pollen ; (2) propose a methodology for quality assessment ; (3) provide data that are ready to be used by atmospheric transport models. The applied methodology combines spatial variations in annual Ambrosia airborne pollen counts (indicator of abundance), knowledge of ragweed ecology (indicator of habitat) and detailed land cover information for the PP and France. Compared to the PP, France could be considered heterogenous with the respect of ecological regions and topography. As a result, the French inventory required additional information about of potential growth habitats such as an elevation filter. In the PP, the gridded species inventory shows that the most infected areas are found to the south as well as two smaller "hot-spots" to the east and west. The most infected areas in France are found in the Rhone valley, e.g. near Roussillon, but notable infection is also found in the Loire valley, particularly near Nevers. Such inventories identify areas of potential growth habitats that are not presently infected by ragweed and highlight the importance of understanding ragweed ecology and local preferred growth habitats and to continue pollen- monitoring in order to investigate expansions in range.

Ambrosia pollen; source inventories; Pannonian Plain; France

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