First Long-Time Airborne Fungal Spores Study in Dublin, Ireland (1978–1980)

Abstract

Ambient fungal spores within the atmosphere can contribute to a range of negative human, animal and plant health conditions and diseases. However, trends in fungal spore seasonality, species prevalence, and geographical origin have been significantly understudied in Ireland. Previously unpublished data from the late 1970s have recently been collected and analysed to establish historical fungal spore trends/characteristics for Dublin. Historical spore concentrations were largely dominated by Alternaria, Ascospores, Basidiospores, Botrytis, Cladosporium, Erysiphe and Rusts. The main fungal spore season for Dublin commenced in April with the fructification of Scopulariopsis and Ganoderma. However, the vast majority of other spore types did not reach peak spore release until late summer. The correlation between ambient spore concentration, and meteorological parameters was examined using Multivariable Regression Tree (MRT) analysis. The notable correlations found for fungal spore concentrations tended to involve temperature-based parameters. The use of a non-parametric wind regression was also employed to determine the potential geographical origin of ambient fungal spores. The impact of wind direction, and high windspeed on fungal spores was established, ultimately highlighting the importance of studying and monitoring fungal spores within Ireland, rather than attempting to rely on data from other regions, as most fungal spores collected in Dublin appeared to originate from within the island.

A Fungal Spore Calendar for England: Analysis of 13 years of Daily Concentrations at Leicester, UK

“…Cladosporium was the most abundant airborne fungal spore in this study, a feature found to be characteristic of a temperate climate (D'Amato and Spieksma, 1995) and observed in many studies across Europe (Antón et al, 2019;Kasprzyk et al, 2004;Martínez-Bracero et al, 2022;Sadys et al, 2016a;Scevkova and Kovac, 2019;Vélez-Pereira et al, 2021).…”

“…While much research has focused on the creation of pollen seasonal calendars to aid allergen avoidance, the same cannot be said in relation to annual fungal spore distributions. Studies that put forward fungal spore calendars specifically have tended to study just one or two spore genera or phyla (Antón et al, 2019; Elvira-Rendueles et al, 2019; Sánchez Reyes et al, 2022) or to sample for less than the 5 years recommended by the European Aerobiological Society (Antón et al, 2019; Bednarz and Pawłowska, 2016; Galan et al, 2017; Kasprzyk et al, 2004; Martínez-Bracero et al, 2022; Reyes et al, 2016; Scevkova and Kovac, 2019).…”

A comprehensive aerobiological study of the airborne pollen in the Irish environment

“…This study represents the first comprehensive, multi-season survey of airborne pollen in Ireland. Prior to this, some short-term pollen (McDonald, 1980;McDonald & O'Driscoll, 1980) and Fungal spore (Healy et al, 2014;Martínez-Bracero et al, 2022;O'Connor et al, 2015aO'Connor et al, , 2015bO'Connor et al, , 2014aO'Connor et al, , 2014b monitoring campaigns were conducted, but none were designed for the continuous or long-term monitoring of pollen trends or for identifying any changes within the network over time. Given that not many previous studies have taken place in Ireland, the few that have been carried out were analysed to identify possible similarities or differences with the current study.…”

“…The worst conditions were experienced from the 28th of February to the 4th of March with air and ground temperatures 5 to 10° below normal (Government of Ireland and Met Éireann, 2019 ). Studies have highlighted that early springtime conditions such as temperature are deciding factors for plant development and thus pollen production (Matyasovszky et al, 2015 ). As a result, the expected release of arboreal pollen in late March was significantly reduced as was the summer release of Poaceae pollen.…”

“…More recently, there have been efforts to further extend such traditional monitoring studied within Ireland. These studies have examined the spatiotemporal variations in the distribution of birch trees and Betula pollen (Maya-Manzano et al, 2021 ) and the use of historical data for fungal spore monitoring (Martínez-Bracero et al, 2022 ).…”