Journal article
Regional and seasonal variation in airborne grass pollen levels between cities of Australia and New Zealand
Danielle E Medek, Paul J Beggs, Bircan Erbas, Alison K Jaggard, Bradley C Campbell, Don Vicendese, Fay H Johnston, Ian Godwin, Alfredo R Huete, Brett J Green, Pamela K Burton, David MJS Bowman, Rewi M Newnham, Constance H Katelaris, Simon G Haberle, Ed Newbigin, Janet M Davies
AEROBIOLOGIA | SPRINGER | Published : 2016
Abstract
Although grass pollen is widely regarded as the major outdoor aeroallergen source in Australia and New Zealand (NZ), no assemblage of airborne pollen data for the region has been previously compiled. Grass pollen count data collected at 14 urban sites in Australia and NZ over periods ranging from 1 to 17 years were acquired, assembled and compared, revealing considerable spatiotemporal variability. Although direct comparison between these data is problematic due to methodological differences between monitoring sites, the following patterns are apparent. Grass pollen seasons tended to have more than one peak from tropics to latitudes of 37°S and single peaks at sites south of this latitude. A..
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Awarded by New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust
Funding Acknowledgements
The Australian Aerobiology Working Group was supported by the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS), Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN). Merck Sharp and Dohme provided additional independent untied co-sponsorship for the Working Group. The authors wish to thank Associate Professor Alison Specht, Program Manager, and the staff of ACEAS, TERN for assistance in organizing the Workshops of the Working Group "Understanding Australian aerobiology to monitor environmental change and human allergenic exposure", North Stradbroke Island, Australia (March and November, 2013). We thank Doctors Diana Bass and Geoffrey Morgan for provision of their published pollen count data from Sydney. Alison Jaggard has been assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust (project reference number 2011/RD/0049). The findings and the conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The authors also acknowledge the contributions a diverse group of people made to this study through counting pollen and maintaining the pollen records that we consolidated and analyzed. Finally, the authors wish to thank Associate Professor Jeroen Buters (Germany), Associate Professor Frank Murray (Australia), and Dr Michel Thibaudon (France) for their contributions to the working group.