Ragweed pollen source inventory for France – The second largest centre of Ambrosia in Europe
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Predictions of atmospheric pollen concentrations are traditionally produced using statistical receptor-orientated models that are constructed without knowledge of source conditions or calculations of advection and diffusion. However, there are a number of similarities between airborne pollen concentrations and chemical air pollutants (Skjøth et al., 2008), which suggest that atmospheric transport models can be used to deal with the atmospheric dispersal of pollen in general (Skjøth et al., 2010 and references therein). Typical source-orientated models are Chemistry Transport Models (CTMs) like the EMEP model (Simpson et al., 2012), CHIMERE (de Meij et al., 2009), MATCH (Langner et al., 2009), LOTUS-EUROS (Wichink Kruit et al., 2012), and DEHM (Skjøth et al., 2011). Such source-orientated models make certain assumptions about the dispersal environment that needs to be satisfied before they can be applied and are based on known or estimated emission rates (Seinfeld and Pandis, 1998).
The performance of source-orientated models is strongly dependent on the quality of the emissions data (Sofiev et al., 2006). Emissions are among the most important input to these models (e.g. Hertel et al., 2012), and are considered to be one of the largest factors of uncertainty (e.g. Reis et al., 2009). Source based models for pollen dispersal require emission inventories of the pollen producing species, e.g. the distribution and abundance, commonly presented as the amount of area covered by certain plant species. This can be achieved by using a bottom-up approach that requires statistical data of pollen producing species (i.e. location and amount) within a given geographical area (e.g. Skjøth et al., 2008). This type of data cannot be found for many important allergenic plants, such as herbaceous weed species like Ambrosia. An alternative to the bottom-up approach is the top-down approach that uses measured pollen concentrations as a starting point and then a backwards calculation method for estimating the geographical distribution of the species of interest (e.g. Skjøth et al., 2010).
Pollen grains from the genus Ambrosia (ragweed) are very potent aeroallergens that appear to induce asthma about twice as often as other pollen (Dahl et al., 1999). Among ragweed species, only Ambrosia maritima L. is native to Europe (Hansen, 1976). Four other species have been introduced from North America. The area invaded by ragweed in a particular region is positively correlated with the length of time passed since its introduction. The most widespread and important in terms of allergy is Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. (common or short ragweed), which according to the analysis of herbarium records has been present in France since 1863 (Chauvel et al., 2006).
Each ragweed plant produces millions of pollen grains (Fumanal et al., 2007) that are small (18–22 μm) and suitable for long-distance transport (LDT) when the atmospheric conditions are favourable (Kasprzyk et al., 2011, Sikoparija et al., 2009, Smith et al., 2008, Stach et al., 2007). The most important sources of ragweed pollen in Europe are considered to be the Rhône Valley (France), parts of Northern Italy and the Pannonian Plain (Skjøth et al., 2010), where the Rhône Valley can contribute to the pollen spectra of other French Regions (Thibaudon et al., 2009, Thibaudon et al., 2010). France is also considered to be the origin of ragweed pollen recorded in Catalonia-Spain (Belmonte et al., 2000) and Switzerland (Peeters, 2000, Taramarcaz et al., 2005), thus contributing to LDT. This study aims to develop an inventory of ragweed pollen sources in France, which can be used by source-orientated models like EMEP or CHIMERE as well as in assessments and for developing eradications plans.
Section snippets
Methods
The ragweed pollen source inventory presented here is based on the methodology proposed for the Pannonian Plain (Skjøth et al., 2010). It combines annual ragweed pollen counts from a number of stations (Section 2.1), knowledge of ragweed ecology and detailed land cover information from the source area. In this study, ragweed ecology includes the elevation of the terrain (Section 2.2) and land cover data that identifies the main ragweed habitats for the entire French region (Section 2.3).
Results
The highest mean annual ragweed pollen concentrations were generally recorded in southeastern France, whilst very low pollen indexes were found to the north, west and south (Fig. 1). Mean annual pollen indexes varied from 4 Ambrosia pollen grains recorded at Bayonne in Southwest France to 5374 Ambrosia pollen grains recorded at Roussillon in the Rhône Valley.
Out of 1086 observations of ragweed plants, the mean elevation height of ragweed populations is 186 m and approximately 99% of all
Discussion
We have taken a new methodology for producing ragweed pollen source inventories and applied it to France. The resulting inventory agrees with previous studies that identify the Rhône Valley as the region with the highest infection by ragweed in France (Thibaudon et al., 2009, Thibaudon et al., 2010). In this study, the Rhône Valley has high densities of possible growth habitats identified in the CLC2000 dataset. These habitats can also be found in other parts of France that are not deemed to be
Conclusion
The ragweed pollen source inventory for France presented here is based on the inventory previously produced for the Pannonian Plain (Skjøth et al., 2010). However, the methodology has been improved upon. In particular, the addition of the DEM will allow inventories to be constructed for other areas with mountainous terrain such as Italy or Austria. The DEM could be considered a parameterized way of handling variations in environmental conditions such as temperatures, precipitation, nutrients
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science R. Serbia projects no. OI173002 and III43002, the Villum-Kann Rasmussen Foundation and the Danish Research Council through two Post Doc grants to Carsten Ambelas Skjøth. The results presented here relate to COST Action FA COST Action FA1203 Sustainable management of Ambrosia artemisiifolia in Europe (SMARTER), http://ragweed.eu.
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