Palynological contribution to aerobiological studies in South-East Scotland.

Airborne pollens and, more recently, spores, which occur in the rooftop airstream overEdinburgh have been monitored and the data analysed, since 1988. The thesisdescribes the developing organisation, methodologies and resources which underpinthe daily pollen count, data of which are transmitted daily to the UK National PollenResearch Unit at Worcester for the British Aerobiology Federation's database. Thedata of birch (Betula) and grass (POACEJE), two highly allergenic components of thepollen circulating, are forwarded daily to the European Aeroallergy Network'sdatabase in Vienna.Each of the nine selected publications presented are of significance both nationallyand internationally. Both the birch and grass pollen studies revealed problemsassociated with geographical location, varying heights of trapping sites anddetermination of start dates for pollen seasons. Likewise, the factors involved inasthma mortality within Scotland, the effect on human health that may be passed byhigh concentrations of bracken spores and the impact of Dutch Elm disease on the elmpopulation, all highlighted problems in determining which environmental factors aresignificant and, possibly, causative. The paper which dealt with the possible use ofpollen rain analysis on vegetation surfaces, was a response to an hypothesis, whichcould have proved useful had it been positive. The two papers on the technique ofpollen analysis of animal faeces has proved to be of value in determining preferreddiet, habitat and cause of pollinosis. Lastly, the biographical paper on DrCunningham once again underlined the importance of an individual's contribution tothe gradual development of techniques for measuring, evaluating and understandingof the roles of various parameters and their interaction in the discharge, aerialmovement and impact ofbiopartic1es.The thesis concludes with a description and evaluation of the author's contribution tothe science of Aerobiology

Mapping the Birch and Grass Pollen Seasons in the UK Using Satellite Sensor Time-series

Grass and birch pollen are two major causes of seasonal allergic rhinitis (hay fever) in the UK and parts of Europe affecting around 15-20% of the population. Current prediction of these allergens in the UK is based on (i) measurements of pollen concentrations at a limited number of monitoring stations across the country and (ii) general information about the phenological status of the vegetation. Thus, the current prediction methodology provides information at a coarse spatial resolution only. Most station-based approaches take into account only local observations of flowering, while only a small number of approaches take into account remote observations of land surface phenology. The systematic gathering of detailed information about vegetation status nationwide would therefore be of great potential utility. In particular, there exists an opportunity to use remote sensing to estimate phenological variables that are related to the flowering phenophase and, thus, pollen release. In turn, these estimates can be used to predict pollen release at a fine spatial resolution. In this study, time-series of MERIS Terrestrial Chlorophyll Index (MTCI) data were used to predict two key phenological variables: the start of season and peak of season. A technique was then developed to estimate the flowering phenophase of birch and grass from the MTCI time-series. For birch, the timing of flowering was defined as the time after the start of the growing season when the MTCI value reached 25% of the maximum. Similarly, for grass this was defined as the time when the MTCI value reached 75% of the maximum. The predicted pollen release dates were validated with data from nine pollen monitoring stations in the UK. For both birch and grass, we obtained large positive correlations between the MTCI-derived start of pollen season and the start of the pollen season defined using station data, with a slightly larger correlation observed for birch than for grass. The technique was applied to produce detailed maps for the flowering of birch and grass across the UK for each of the years from 2003 to 2010. The results demonstrate that the remote sensing-based maps of onset flowering of birch and grass for the UK together with the pollen forecast from the Meteorology Office and National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit (NPARU) can potentially provide more accurate information to pollen allergy sufferers in the UK

Palynological contributions to aerobiological studies in south-east Scotland

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN056005 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Is the allylpalladium structure altered between solid and solutions?

International audienc