Potential contribution of distant sources to airborne Betula pollen levels in Northeastern Iberian Peninsula
Betula (birch) pollen is one of the most important causes of respiratory allergy in Northern and Central Europe. While birch trees are abundant inCentral, Northern, and Eastern Europe,theyare scarce inthe Mediterranean territories, especially in the Iberian Peninsula (IP), where they grow only in th...
| Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2022 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repository: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/366932 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/366932 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151827 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Allergy Pollinosis Pollen concentration peak and season Source regions Mesoscale and Lagrangian models Orography Role of long-range transport Al·lèrgia Pol·linosi Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Física |
| Summary: | Betula (birch) pollen is one of the most important causes of respiratory allergy in Northern and Central Europe. While birch trees are abundant inCentral, Northern, and Eastern Europe,theyare scarce inthe Mediterranean territories, especially in the Iberian Peninsula (IP), where they grow only in the northern regions and as ornamental trees in urban areas. However, the airborne birch pollen patterns in Catalonia (Northeastern IP) show abrupt high concentrations in areas withusually low local influence.The intensity of the derived health problemscan beincreasedbyoutbreaksdue to long-range pollen transport. The present work evaluates the different potential contributions to Catalonia from the main source regions: Pyrenees, Cantabria, and the forests of France and Central Europe. To this end, we computed the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) back trajectories of air masses associated with the main Betula pollen peaks occurring simultaneously over different Catalan monitoring stations, and we studied their provenance over a 15-year period. The Vielha aerobiological station on the northern slopes of the Central Pyrenees was used to identify the dates of the pollen season in the Pyrenean region. In order to better understand the role of the Pyrenees, whichis thenearest of thefourbirch forested regions, weclassifiedthepollenpeaksinthe other Catalan stations into three groups based onthe relationship between the peak andthe pollenseason in thePyrenees. Our analysis of back-trajectory residence time, combined with the associated pollen concentration, reveals that two principal routes other than the Pyrenean forest sustain the northerly fluxes that enter Catalonia and carry significant concentrations of Betula pollen. This study has also allowed quantifying the differentiated contributions of the potential source |
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