Phenological and seismological impacts on airborne pollen types: A case study of Olea pollen in the Region of Murcia, Mediterranean Spanish climate

Abstract

The rationale of this paper was to investigate whether earthquakes impact airborne pollen concentrations, considering some meteorological parameters. Atmospheric pollen concentrations in the Region ofMurcia Aerobiological Network (Spain)were studied in relation to the occurrence of earthquakes ofmoment magnitude (up toMw=5.1) and intensity (intensity up to grade VII on the European Macroseismic Scale). In this study, a decade (2010–2019) was considered across the cities of the network. Earthquakes were detected in 12 out of 1535 days in the Olea Main Pollen Season in Cartagena, 49 out of 1481 days in the Olea Main Pollen Season in Lorca, and 39 out of 1441 days in the Olea Main Pollen Season in Murcia. The Olea pollen grains in this network were attributed to the species Olea europaea, i.e., the olive tree, a taxon that appears widely in the Mediterranean basin, in both cultivated and wild subspecies. Differences between the Olea concentration on days with and without earthquakes were only found in Lorca (Kruskal-Wallis: p-value=0.026). The low frequency and intensity of the earthquakes explained these results. The most catastrophic earthquake felt in Lorca on May 11th, 2011 (IVII, Mw=5.1, 9 casualties) did not result in clear variations in pollen concentrations, while meteorology (e.g., African Dust Outbreak) might have conditioned these pollen concentrations. The research should be broadened to other active seismological areas to reinforce the hypothesis of seismological impact on airborne pollen concentrations.This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Spanish Government, grant number SICAAP-CPI RTI2018-096392-BC21; the Interministerial Committee of Science and Technology, grant numbers BOS2000-0563-C02-02, BOS2003-06329-C02-02, and BOS 2006-15103; and the Seneca Foundation of the Region of Murcia, grant number 08849/PI/08. The anonymous reviewers are thanked for their comments to improve the quality of the manuscript. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Dr. Belén Elvira-Rendueles for her advice and commitment with REAREMUR and, Ms. Paula García López, technician at REAREMUR, funded by the Spanish State Research Agency, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (code: PTA2017-13571-I). Authors thank NOAA for providing the synoptic charts, AEMET for the meteorological data and IGN for the seismological information. Gratitude is also shown to Laura Wettersten for the language edition

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