References

Biogeosciences

1726-4189

Copernicus Publications

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/bg-10-541-2013

Identifying urban sources as cause of elevated grass pollen concentrations using GIS and remote sensing

Skjøth

C. A.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5992-9568

¹ ² Ørby

P. V.

³ Becker

² Geels

² Schlünssen

³ Sigsgaard

³ Bønløkke

J. H.

³ Sommer

⁴ Søgaard

⁵ Hertel

² ⁶

Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystems Science, Sölvegatan 12, Lund University, 223 62 Lund, Sweden

Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, P.O. Box 358, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark

Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 2, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

Asthma and Allergy Association Denmark, Universitetsparken 4, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark

Department of Nature and Environment, Municipality of Aarhus, P.O. Box 79, Valdemarsgade 18, 8100 Aarhus, Denmark

Department for Environmental, Social and Spatial Change (ENSPAC), Roskilde University, P.O. Box 260, Universitetsvej 1, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark

29 01 2013

10 1 541 554

2013

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This article is available from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/10/541/2013/bg-10-541-2013.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/10/541/2013/bg-10-541-2013.pdf

We examine here the hypothesis that during flowering, the grass pollen concentrations at a specific site reflect the distribution of grass pollen sources within a few kilometres of this site. We perform this analysis on data from a measurement campaign in the city of Aarhus (Denmark) using three pollen traps and by comparing these observations with a novel inventory of grass pollen sources. The source inventory is based on a new methodology developed for urban-scale grass pollen sources. The new methodology is believed to be generally applicable for the European area, as it relies on commonly available remote sensing data combined with management information for local grass areas. The inventory has identified a number of grass pollen source areas present within the city domain. The comparison of the measured pollen concentrations with the inventory shows that the atmospheric concentrations of grass pollen in the urban zone reflect the source areas identified in the inventory, and that the pollen sources that are found to affect the pollen levels are located near or within the city domain. The results also show that during days with peak levels of pollen concentrations there is no correlation between the three urban traps and an operational trap located just 60 km away. This finding suggests that during intense flowering, the grass pollen concentration mirrors the local source distribution and is thus a local-scale phenomenon. Model simulations aimed at assessing population exposure to pollen levels are therefore recommended to take into account both local sources and local atmospheric transport, and not to rely only on describing regional to long-range transport of pollen. The derived pollen source inventory can be entered into local-scale atmospheric transport models in combination with other components that simulate pollen release in order to calculate urban-scale variations in the grass pollen load. The gridded inventory with a resolution of 14 m is therefore made available as supplementary material to this paper, and the verifying grass pollen observations are additionally available in tabular form.

References 1

Alcazar, P., Galan, C., Carinanos, P., and Dominguez-Vilches, E.: Effects of sampling height and climatic conditions in aerobiological studies, J. Invest. Allerg. Clin., 9, 253–261, 1999.

Avolio, E., Pasqualoni, L., Federico, S., Fornaciari, M., Bonofiglio, T., Orlandi, F., Bellecci, C., and Romano, B.: Correlation between large-scale atmospheric fields and the olive pollen season in Central Italy, Int. J. Biometeorol., 52, 787–796, 2008.

Belmonte, J., Alarcon, M., Avila, A., Scialabba, E., and Pino, D.: Long-range transport of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) pollen to Catalonia (north-eastern Spain), Int. J. Biometeorol., 52, 675–687, 2008.

Bicheron, P., Defourny, P., Brockmann, C., Schouten, L., Vancutsem, C., Huc, M., Bontemps, S., Leroy, M., Achard, F., Herold, M., Ranera, F., and Arino, O.: Globcover products description Manual MEDIAS-France, 2008.

Brandt, J., Silver, J. D., Frohn, L. M., Geels, C., Gross, A., Hansen, A. B., Hansen, K. M., Hedegaard, G. B., Skjøth, C. A., Villadsen, H., Zare, A., and Christensen, J. H.: An integrated model study for Europe and North America using the Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model with focus on intercontinental transport of air pollution, Atmos. Environ., 53, 156–176, 2012.

Bricchi, E., Frenguelli, G., and Mincigrucci, G.: Experimental results about Platanus pollen deposition, Aerobiologia, 16, 347–352, 2000.

Brostrom, A., Nielsen, A. B., Gaillard, M. J., Hjelle, K., Mazier, F., Binney, H., Bunting, J., Fyfe, R., Meltsov, V., Poska, A., Rasanen, S., Soepboer, W., von Stedingk, H., Suutari, H., and Sugita, S.: Pollen productivity estimates of key European plant taxa for quantitative reconstruction of past vegetation: a review, Veg. Hist. Archaeobot., 17, 461–478, 2008.

Brown, H. M. and Irving, K. R.: Size and Weight of Common Allergenic Pollens – Investigation of Their Number Per Microgram and Size Distribution, Acta Allergol., 28, 132–137, 1973.

Carracedo-Martinez, E., Sanchez, C., Taracido, M., Saez, M., Jato, V., and Figueiras, A.: Effect of short-term exposure to air pollution and pollen on medical emergency calls: a case-crossover study in Spain, Allergy, 63, 347–353, 2008.

Cecchi, L., Malaspina, T., Albertini, R., Zanca, M., Ridolo, E., Usberti, I., Morabito, M., Dall' Aglio, P., and Orlandini, S.: The contribution of long-distance transport to the presence of Ambrosia pollen in central northern Italy, Aerobiologia, 23, 145–151, 2007.

Chuine, I. and Belmonte, J.: Improving prophylaxis for pollen allergies: Predicting the time course of the pollen load of the atmosphere of major allergenic plants in France and Spain, Grana, 43, 65–80, 2004.

D'amato, G., Cecchi, L., Bonini, S., Nunes, C., Annesi-Maesano, I., Behrendt, H., Liccardi, G., Popov, T., and Van Cauwenberge, P.: Allergenic pollen and pollen allergy in Europe, Allergy, 62, 976–990, 2007.

Day, J. H., Horak, F., Briscoe, M. P., Canonica, G. W., Fineman, S. M., Krug, N., Leynadier, F., Lieberman, P., Quirce, S., Takenaka, H., and Cauwenberge, P.: The role of allergen challenge chambers in the evaluation of anti-allergic medication: an international consensus paper, Clin. Exp. Allergy Rev., 6, 31–59, 2006.

DigitalGlobe Corporate: Quickbird spacecraft data sheet Longmont, Colorado, 2010.

Durham, O. C.: The Volumetric Incidence of Atmospheric Allergens, 3. Rate of Fall of Pollen Grains in Still Air, J. Allergy, 17, 70–78, 1946.

Ellermann, T., Andersen, H. V., Bossi, R., Christensen, J., Frohn, L. M., Geels, C., Kemp, K., Løfstrøm, P., Mogensen, B. B., and Monies, C.: Atmospheric Deposition 2006, NOVANA (in Danish: Atmosfærisk Deposition, NOVANA) National Environmental Research Institute, University of Aarhus, Roskilde, Denmark, 2007.

Emberlin, J., Mullins, J., Corden, J., Jones, S., Millington, W., Brooke, M., and Savage, M.: Regional variations in grass pollen seasons in the UK, long-term trends and forecast models, Clin. Exp. Allergy, 29, 347–356, 1999.

Emberlin, J., Jaeger, S., Dominguez-Vilches, E., Soldevilla, C. G., Hodal, L., Mandrioli, P., Lehtimäki, A. R., Savage, M., Spieksma, F. T., and Bartlett, C.: Temporal and geographical variations in grass pollen seasons in areas of western Europe: an analysis of season dates at sites of the European pollen information system, Aerobiologia, 16, 373–379, 2000.

European Commission: Image2000 and CLC2000 Products and Methods European Commission, Joint Research Center (DG JRC), Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Land Management Unit, 21020 Ispra (VA), Italy, 2005.

Faegri, K. and Iversen, J.: Textbook of Pollen Analysis, John Wiley and Sons, 1992.

Fritz, S., Bartholome, E., Belward, A., Hartley, A., Stibig, H.-J., Eva, H., Mayaux, P., Bartalev, S., Latifovic, R., Kolmert, S., Roy, P. S., Agrawal, S., Bingfang, W., Wenting, X., Ledwith, M., Pekel, J.-F., Giri, C., Mücher, S., de Badts, E., Tateishi, R., Champeaux, J.-L., and Defourny, P.: The Global Land Cover for the Year 2000 European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 2003.

Fumanal, B., Chauvel, B., and Bretagnolle, F.: Estimation of pollen and seed production of common ragweed in France, Ann. Agr. Env. Med., 14, 233–236, 2007.

Garcìa-Mozo, H., Galán, C., Belmonte, J., Bermejo, D., Candau, P., Díaz de la Guardia, C., Elvira, B., Gutiérrez, M., Jato, V., Silva, I., Trigo, M. M., Valencia, R., and Chuine, I.: Predicting the start and peak dates of the Poaceae pollen season in Spain using process-based models, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 149, 256–262, 2009.

Geels, C., Andersen, H. V., Ambelas Skjøth, C., Christensen, J. H., Ellermann, T., Løfstrøm, P., Gyldenkærne, S., Brandt, J., Hansen, K. M., Frohn, L. M., and Hertel, O.: Improved modelling of atmospheric ammonia over Denmark using the coupled modelling system DAMOS, Biogeosciences, 9, 2625–2647, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-2625-2012">https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-2625-2012</a>, 2012.

Goldberg, C., Buch, H., Moseholm, L., and Weeke, E. R.: Airborne Pollen Records in Denmark, 1977–1986, Grana, 27, 209–217, 1988.

GRASS Development Team: Geographic Resource Analysis Support System (GRASS) Software: Open source Geospatial Foundation Project, 2008.

Gregory, P. H.: The microbiology of the Atmosphere: Aylesbury, Bucks, UK, Leonard Hill, 1973.

Gyldenkærne, S., Ambelas Skjøth, C., Hertel, O., and Ellermann, T., A dynamical ammonia emission parameterization for use in air pollution models, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D07108, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2004JD005459">https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JD005459</a>, 2005.

Helbig, N., Vogel, B., Vogel, H., and Fiedler, F.: Numerical modelling of pollen dispersion on the regional scale, Aerobiologia, 20, 3–19, 2004.

Hertel, O., Jensen, S. S., Hvidberg, M., Ketzel, M., Berkowicz, R., Sorensen, M., Loft, S., and Nielsen, O. R.: Exposure modeling – Using operational air pollution models, Toxicol. Lett., 164S, S15–S16, 2006.

Hertel, O., Ellermann, T., Palmgren, F., Berkowicz, R., Lofstrom, P., Frohn, L. M., Geels, C., Skjoth, C. A., Brandt, J., Christensen, J., Kemp, K., and Ketzel, M.: Integrated air-quality monitoring – combined use of measurements and models in monitoring programmes, Environ. Chem., 4, 65–74, 2007.

Hertel, O., Geels, C., Frohn, L. M., Ellermann, T., Skjoth, C. A., Lofstrom, P., Christensen, J. H., Andersen, H. V., and Peel, R. G.: Assessing atmospheric nitrogen deposition to natural and semi-natural ecosystems – Experience from Danish studies using the DAMOS system, Atmos. Environ., 66, 151–160, 2013.

Hirst, J. M.: An automatic volumetric spore trap, Ann. Appl. Biol., 39, 257–265, 1952.

Jato, V., Rodriguez-Rajo, F. J., Seijo, M. C., and Aira, M. J.: Poaceae pollen in Galicia (NW Spain): characterisation and recent trends in atmospheric pollen season, Int. J. Biometeorol., 53, 333–344, 2009.

Käpyla, M. and Penttinen, A.: An evaluation of the microscopial counting methods of the tape in Hirst-Burkard pollen and spore trap, Grana, 20, 131–141, 1981.

Laaidi, M.: Forecasting the start of the pollen season of Poaceae: evaluation of some methods based on meteorological factors, Int. J. Biometeorol., 45, 1–7, 2001.

Lillesand, T. M., Kiefer, R. W., and Chipman, J. W.: Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, John Wiley & Sons, NY, USA, 2007.

Mäkelä, E. M.: Size distinctions between Betula pollen types – A review, Grana, 35, 248–256, 1996.

Olesen, H. R., Løfstrøm, P., Berkowicz, R., and Jensen, A. B.: An Improved dispersion model for regulatory use – the OML model, Nato Chal. M, 29–38, 1992.

Orlanski, I.: A rational subdivision of scales for atmospheric processes, B. Am. Meteor. Soc. 56, 527–530, 1975.

Pashley, C., Fairs, A., Edwards, R., Bailey, J., Corden, J., and Wardlaw, A.: Reproducibility between counts of airborne allergenic pollen from two cities in the East Midlands, UK, Aerobiologia, 25, 249–263, 2009.

Pauleit, S. and Duhme, F.: Assessing the environmental performance of land cover types for urban planning, Landscape Urban Plan., 52, 1–20, 2000a.

Pauleit, S. and Duhme, F.: GIS assessment of Munich's Urban Forest structure for Urban planning, J. Arboriculture, 26, 133–141, 2000b.

Pauleit, S., Jones, N., Garcia-Martin, G., Garcia-Valdecantos, J. L., Riviere, L. M., Vidal-Beaudet, L., Bodson, M., and Randrup, T. B.: Tree establishment practice in towns and cities – Results from a European survey, Urban For. Urban Gree., 1, 83–96, 2002.

Petersen, N. and Munch, E.: Anvendelsen af aerobiologiske data, in: Pollen og Skimmelsvampesporer, Symposium om pollen og skimmelsvampesporers betydning ved allergiske sygdomme, edited by: Weeke, E. and Petersen, N. B., Scanticon, Århus, Denmark, 1981.

Pohl, F.: Die Pollenerzeugung der Windblüter, Eine vergleichende Untersuchiung mit Ausblicken auf den Bestäubungshaushalt tierblütiger Gewächse und die pollenanalytische Waldgeschichtsforshung, Beih. Bot. Centrallblatt, 56, 365–470, 1937.

Rantio-Lehtimaki, A., Koivikko, A., Kupias, R., Makinen, Y., and Pohjola, A.: Significance of Sampling Height of Airborne Particles for Aerobiological Information, Allergy, 46, 68–76, 1991.

Seinfeld, J. H. and Pandis, S. N.: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York, USA, 1326 pp., 1998.

Simpson, D., Winiwarter, W., Borjesson, G., Cinderby, S., Ferreiro, A., Guenther, A., Hewitt, C. N., Janson, R., Khalil, M. A. K., Owen, S., Pierce, T. E., Puxbaum, H., Shearer, M., Skiba, U., Steinbrecher, R., Tarrason, L., and Oquist, M. G.: Inventorying emissions from nature in Europe, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 104, 8113–8152, 1999.

Skjøth, C. A.: Integrating measurements, phenological models and atmospheric models in Aerobiology – creating new concepts within aerobiological integrated monitoring and forecasting Faculty of Science, Copenhagen University, Ph.D. thesis, 123 pp., 2009.

Skjøth, C. A., Hertel, O., Gyldenkærne, S., and Ellermann, T.: Implementing a dynamical ammonia emission parameterization in the large-scale air pollution model ACDEP, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D06306, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003JD003895">https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JD003895</a>, 2004.

Skjøth, C. A., Sommer, J., Stach, A., Smith, M., and Brandt, J.: The long range transport of birch (Betula) pollen from Poland and Germany causes significant pre-season concentrations in Denmark, Clin. Exp. Allergy, 37, 1204–1212, 2007.

Skjøth, C. A., Geels, C., Hvidberg, M., Hertel, O., Brandt, J., Frohn, L. M., Hansen, K. M., Hedegaard, G. B., Christensen, J., and Moseholm, L.: An inventory of tree species in Europe – an essential data input for air pollution modelling, Ecol. Modell., 217, 292–304, 2008a.

Skjøth, C. A., Sommer, J., Brandt, J., Hvidberg, M., Geels, C., Hansen, K., Hertel, O., Frohn, L., and Christensen, J.: Copenhagen – a significant source of birch (Betula) pollen?, Int. J. Biometeorol., 52, 453–462, 2008b.

Skjøth, C. A., Smith, M., Brandt, J., and Emberlin, J.: Are the birch trees in Southern England a source of Betula pollen for North London?, Int. J. Biometeorol., 53, 75–86, 2009.

Skjøth, C. A., Smith, M., Sikoparija, B., Stach, A., Myszkowska, D., Kasprzyk, I., Radisic, P., Stjepanovic, B., Hrga, I., Apatini, D., Magyar, D., Paldy, A., and Ianovici, N.: A method for producing airborne pollen source inventories: An example of Ambrosia (ragweed) on the Pannonian Plain, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 150, 1203–1210, 2010.

Smith, M. and Emberlin, J.: Constructing a 7-day ahead forecast model for grass pollen at north London, United Kingdom, Clin. Exp. Allergy, 35, 1400–1406, 2005.

Smith, M. and Emberlin, J.: A 30-day-ahead forecast model for grass pollen in north London, United Kingdom, Int. J. Biometeorol., 50, 233–242, 2006.

Smith, M., Emberlin, J., and Kress, A.: Examining high magnitude grass pollen episodes at Worcester, United Kingdom, using back-trajectory analysis, Aerobiologia, 21, 85–94, 2005.

Smith, M., Skjøth, C. A., Myszkowska, D., Uruska, A., Malgorzata, P., Stach, A., Balwierzg, Z., Chlopek, K., Piotrowska, K., Kasprzyk, I., and Brandt, J.: Long-range transport of Ambrosia pollen to Poland, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 148, 1402–1411, 2008.

Smith, M., Emberlin, J., Stach, A., Rantio-Lehtimaki, A., Caulton, E., Thibaudon, M., Sindt, C., Jager, S., Gehrig, R., Frenguelli, G., Jato, V., Rajo, F. J. R., Alcazar, P., and Galan, C.: Influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on grass pollen counts in Europe, Aerobiologia, 25, 321–332, 2009.

Sofiev, M., Siljamo, P., Ranta, H., and Rantio-Lehtimaki, A.: Towards numerical forecasting of long-range air transport of birch pollen: theoretical considerations and a feasibility study, Int. J. Biometeorol., 50, 392–402, 2006a.

Sofiev, M., Siljamo, P., Valkama, I., Ilvonen, M., and Kukkonen, J.: A dispersion modelling system SILAM and its evaluation against ETEX data, Atmos. Environ., 40, 674–685, 2006b.

Sofiev, M., Belmonte, J., Gehrig, R., Izquierdo, R., Smith, M., Dahl, A., and Siljamo, P.: Airborne Pollen Transport, in: Allergenic Pollen: A Review of the Production, Release, Distribution and Health Impacts, edited by: Sofiev, M. and Bergmann, K.-C., Springer, The Netherlands, 127–159, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4881-1_5">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4881-1_5</a>, 2013.

Sommer, J. and Rasmussen, A.: Measurements of pollen and spores in Denmark 2009 (in Danish: Pollen- og sporemålinger i Danmark sæsonen 2009) The Astma-Allergy Association, Universitetsparken 4, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark, 2009.

Sommer, S. G., Østergård, H. S., Løfstrøm, P., Andersen, H. V., and Jensen, L. S.: Validation of model calculation of ammonia deposition in the neighbourhood of a poultry farm using measured NH3 concentrations and N deposition, Atmos. Environ., 43, 915–-920, 2009.

Sorensen, M., Autrup, H., Moller, P., Hertel, O., Jensen, S. S., Vinzents, P., Knudsen, L. E., and Loft, S.: Linking exposure to environmental pollutants with biological effects, Mutat. Res.-Rev. Mutat., 544, 255–271, 2003.

Stach, A., Smith, M., Skjøth, C. A., and Brandt, J.: Examining Ambrosia pollen episodes at Poznañ (Poland) using back-trajectory analysis, Int. J. Biometeorol., 51, 275–286, 2007.

Stach, A., Smith, M., Baena, J. C. P., and Emberlin, J.: Long-term and short-term forecast models for Poaceae (grass) pollen in Poznan, Poland, constructed using regression analysis, Environ. Exp. Bot., 62, 323–332, 2008.

US-EPA: AERMOD: Latest Features and Evaluation Results U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of AirQuality Planning and Standards, Emissions Monitoring and Analysis Division, Research Triangle Park, NC27711, USA, 2003.

Weeke, E.: Behandling af pollen- og skimmelssporeallergi, in: Pollen og Skimmelsvampesporer, Symposium om pollen og skimmelsvampesporers betydning ved allergiske sygdomme, edited by: Weeke, E. and Petersen, N. B., Scanticon, Århus, Denmark, 1981.

WHO: Phenology and Human Health: Allergic Disorders WHO Regional Office for Europe, Scherfigsvej 8, 2100, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark, 2003.

Zink, K., Vogel, H., Vogel, B., Magyar, D., and Kottmeier, C.: Modeling the dispersion of Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. pollen with the model system COSMO-ART, Int. J. Biometeorol., 56, 669–680, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00484-011-0468-8">https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-011-0468-8</a>, 2012.