Annual pollen deposition in the Pre-Delta National Park (Entre Ríos, Argentina)

Abstract

Annual pollen deposition in the Pre-Delta National Park (Entre Ríos, Argentina). This work aims to analyze the seasonal pattern and the diversity of the Pre-Delta National Park vegetation (Entre Ríos, Argentina) as reflected by the deposited pollen along a year. Pollen has been monitored monthly with Tauber traps over one year (since August 2004 to July 2005. The pollen traps were placed in two sub environments within the park: 1) in a tallgrass prairie (P), and 2) in a shrubland next to a forest (A). The high diversity was determined by 83 pollen types (72 in P and 65 in A), but only 3 in P and 5 in A reached more than 5% of the pollen total. Asteraceae Asteroideae (non Ambrosia, non Artemisia), Poaceae and Salix were the most abundant, being related to the Tessaria and Salix forests, and to the prairies of Panicum. In A, the Prosopis pollen (typical taxon of the Espinal vegetation) was also important, as well as the Solanum glaucophyllum pollen type (taxon of the wetland). The deposited annual pollen value was 15186 pollen/cm 2 in P and 11552 pollen/cm 2 in A. A noticeable seasonal difference was observed between P (the maximum in January and February) and A (maximum in October) due to the flowering of dominant taxa: Poaceae and Asteraceae Asteroideae, respectively. The minimum was registered in July in both sites. In conclusion the plant diversity of the park is represented in both sites, but the seasonal flowering period differs according to the main vegetation sources.Key words: modern pollen deposition, wetland, Argentina. ____________El conocimiento de los tipos polínicos presentes en la atmósfera de una región y de su abundancia, se corresponde con una medida de la diversidad y composición, no sólo de la vegetación local, sino también del aporte de la flora regional. Esto último es importante al analizar un ambiente protegido como son los Parques Nacionales, cuyo objetivo primordial es el de preservar un ambiente dado. En particular, el Parque Nacional Pre-Delta donde se desarrolla este trabajo, forma parte de uno de los humedales fluviales más importantes de América del Sur (Peteán & Cappato, 2005). Los humedales son los ecosistemas más productivos del planeta y requieren de un especial tratamiento de conservación y uso racional, ya que mitigan las inundaciones y sequías, mantienen una altísima diversidad, controlan la erosión y proveen transporte y recursos alimenticios a numerosas comunidades.El estudio de los granos de polen que se dispersan en el aire de un área natural, requiere de una metodología que permita un muestreo continuo y que asegure la evaluación tanto del polen proveniente de la vegetación propia del sitio de interés como del polen foráneo (Fontana, 2003). En este sentido, es importante analizar los patrones de depositación del polen atmosférico, que permite en principio, discriminar las fuentes potenciales.Por otra parte, tanto como es importante analizar la conformación de la vegetación, lo es también conocer su comportamiento reproductivo a lo largo de su ciclo anual. El ap...

First report of airborne pollen in Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina: a 2-year survey

“…In the air of Santa Rosa in 1 year of aerobiological monitoring, 73 pollen types were found, 42 of wooden origin and 31 of herbaceous origin. This pollen richness is similar to that found in other urban areas of Argentina: 61 pollen types were found in Bahı ´a Blanca (Murray et al 2010), 83 in Mar del Plata (Latorre and Caccavari 2009), 79 in La Plata (Nitiu 2006), 54 in Buenos Aires (Nitiu et al 2003), 68 in Diamante (Latorre and Caccavari 2010) and 66 in San Carlos de Bariloche (Bianchi and Olabuenaga 2006). In San Miguel de Tucuman, there have been records of the tree fraction, with 30 pollen types (Garcı ´a and Nitiu 2012).…”

“…In Argentina, the daily urban monitoring of airborne pollen with volumetric methodology has been conducted mainly in the Pampean region, such as in the cities of Mar del Plata (Latorre and Pe ´rez 1997;Latorre and Caccavari 2009), La Plata (Nitiu and Romero 2002;Nitiu 2006), Bahia Blanca (Murray et al 2002(Murray et al , 2010, Rosario (Gattuso et al 2003a, b) and Buenos Aires (Noetinger and Romero 1997;Nitiu et al 2003). Other urban centres, such as San Carlos de Bariloche in the region of the Andean-Patagonian forest (Bianchi and Olabuenaga 2006), San Miguel de Tucuman in the Yungas region (Garcı ´a and Nitiu 2012) and Diamante in the Parana ´Delta area (Latorre and Caccavari 2010), have also been studied.…”