The South African Pollen Monitoring Network: Insights from 2 years of national aerospora sampling (2019-2021).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pollen monitoring has been discontinuously undertaken in South Africa, a country with high biodiversity, a seasonal rainfall gradient, and nine biomes from arid to subtropical. The South African Pollen Monitoring Network was set up in 2019 to conduct the first long-term national aerospora monitoring across multiple biomes, providing weekly reports to allergy sufferers and healthcare providers.

Methods

Daily airborne pollen concentrations were measured from August 2019 to August 2021 in seven cities across South Africa. Updated pollen calendars were created for the major pollen types (>3%), the average Annual Pollen Index over 12 months was calculated, and the results were compared to available historical data.

Results

The main pollen types were from exotic

SUBMITTER: Esterhuizen N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10620116 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature