The variability of pollen concentrations at two stations in the city of Wrocław in Poland

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the variability of Alnus and Corylus pollen concentrations at two stations located in the city of Wrocław, Poland—one at the city centre and the other 4\xa0km from the city centre. Our goal was to compare measurements from these stations in relation to meteorology and land cover. We used Spearman’s correlation coefficient to investigate any dependence between meteorological factors and pollen concentration. Additionally, to check the relation between the direction of inflow of air masses and pollen concentration, we calculated the backward trajectories using the HYSPLIT model. The results have shown that despite the short distance between the stations, the characteristic of the pollen season is different for both stations (i.a. date of start and end of pollen season, duration of the season). The Spearman’s correlation coefficient between relative humidity and air temperature and pollen concentration was found to be statistically significant. The backward trajectories calculated with HYSPLIT suggested a different origin of air masses between stations for high-concentration episodes in the case of Alnus. Our study has shown that analysis of meteorological conditions and influence of air transport into pollen concentration makes it possible to ascertain the reasons for differences in pollen level at these two stations, both of which are located in the same climatological domain. The study also shows that the aerobiological condition may change significantly over a short distance, which is a major challenge, for example, for pollen emission, transport, and concentration modelling.