One-Year pollen and spore calendars of Saudi Arabia Al-Khobar, Abha and Hofuf

Abstract

Airborne Pollen grains and Spores of three different cities viz., Al-Khobar (1987-1988, Abha (1991Abha ( -1992 and Hofuf (1992Hofuf ( -1993 in Saudi Arabia were studied using Burkard Volumetric Seven-Day Spore Trap. The data were analyzed in relation to their allergenic capability and one-year pollen and spore calendars were designed to correlate the patients' symptoms as well as for selection of appropriate allergen extracts for diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases. Amongst pollen group, Amaranthus viridis, Plantago spp., Chenopodium album, Ricinus communis, Rumex vesicarius, Juniperus spp., Parkinsonia aculeata, Prosopis spp., and Phoenix dactylifera were some of the frequent types. Amongst the fungal spores group Cladosporium, Smuts spores, Colored basidiospores, Alternaria, Ulocladium and Drechslera were the dominant types.

Seasonal and intradiurnal variation of allergenic fungal spores in urban and rural areas of the North of Portugal

“…Cladosporium spores have been reported to be the most abundant fungal spores found in the atmosphere in several regions with different weather conditions (Damialis and Gioulekas 2006;Gillum and Levetin 2008;Hasnain et al 2005;Henriquez et al 2001;Herrero et al 2006 Myszkowska et al 2002;Oliveira et al 2005;Pepeljnjak and Segvi 2003). Cladosporium spore concentrations were low in the first months of the year and started to rise in early summer, maximum values being reached in late summer and in early autumn and returning to basal values afterwards.…”

Dynamics (seasonal and intra-diurnal) of air-borne fungal spore population of Doha area, Qatar

“…Abdel-Hafez (1984) factors affected the dynamics of air borne basidiospores, but also regional parameter had significant impact (Hasnain et al, 2005).…”

“…in Egypt (Hameed et al, 2009) in Turkey (Erkara et al,2008), in Iran ( Nourian et al, 2007;Shams-Ghahfarokhi et al, 2014), in Saudi Arabia (Abdel-Hafez, 1984;Hasnain et al, 2005) , in Kuwait (Halawagy, 1989;Khan et al,1999).Fungal spores are ubiquitous component of the bioaerosols. The availability and survivability of the aeromycota are known to be influenced by their interactions with biotic and abiotic components of the environment such as meteorological factors, geographical location, air pollutions, vegetation cover, and anthropogenic activates.…”

Microorganisms in the atmosphere over Antarctica

“…Variation in the abundance of airborne microorganisms is extremely high; for example, Lighthart & Shaffer (1995) found concentrations of airborne bacteria with a maximum of 1368.5 CFU m −3 , with a coefficient of variation of 90.5% and a mean of 121.3 CFU m −3 above a temperate field. This variation can operate over a number of different time scales, which include instantaneous effects of local microclimatic conditions, diurnal periodicity (Hasnain et al , 2005; Rossi et al , 2005) and seasonality for both bacteria (Marafie & Ashkanani, 1991; Choi et al , 1997; Mahdy & El Sehrawi, 1997; Kruczalak et al , 2002; Oppliger et al , 2005) and fungi (Shelton et al , 2002), with peak abundances tending to occur over the summer, but also to some extent in spring and autumn. A number of factors are thought to influence this periodicity, particularly meteorological conditions (Lighthart & Shaffer, 1995), including mean, minimum and maximum, temperature, dew point temperature, air pressure (Stennett & Beggs, 2004), the solar radiation cycle (including both diurnal and annual cycles), topography, ground heating by the sun or sea breezes, source strength and human activities (Lighthart, 1999).…”