Why should we care about high temporal resolution monitoring of bioaerosols in ambient air?

This is the first time that atmospheric concentrations of individual pollen types have been recorded by an automatic sampler with 1-hour and sub-hourly resolution (i.e. 1-minute and 1-second data). The data were collected by traditional Hirst type methods and state-of the art Rapid-E real-time bioae...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Science of the total environment 2022-06, Vol.826, p.154231-154231, Article 154231
Main Authors: Smith, Matt, Matavulj, Predrag, Mimić, Gordan, Panić, Marko, Grewling, Łukasz, Šikoparija, Branko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
1-Minute data
1-Second data
Air Pollutants - analysis
Airborne pollen
Allergens - analysis
Ambrosia
Environmental Monitoring
High temporal resolution
Humans
Laser spectroscopy
Pollen - chemistry
Seasons
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Summary:This is the first time that atmospheric concentrations of individual pollen types have been recorded by an automatic sampler with 1-hour and sub-hourly resolution (i.e. 1-minute and 1-second data). The data were collected by traditional Hirst type methods and state-of the art Rapid-E real-time bioaerosol detector. Airborne pollen data from 7 taxa, i.e. Acer negundo, Ambrosia, Broussonetia papyrifera, Cupressales (Taxaceae and Cupressaceae families), Platanus, Salix and Ulmus, were collected during the 2019 pollen season in Novi Sad, Serbia. Pollen data with daily, hourly and sub-hourly temporal resolution were analysed in terms of their temporal variability. The impact of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) on pollen cloud homogeneity was investigated. Variations in Seasonal Pollen Integrals produced by Hirst and Rapid-E show that scaling factors are required to make data comparable. Daily average and hourly measurements recorded by the Rapid-E and Hirst were highly correlated and so examining Rapid-E measurements with sub-hourly resolution is assumed meaningful from the perspective of identification accuracy. Sub-hourly data provided an insight into the heterogenous nature of pollen in the air, with distinct peaks lasting ~5–10 min, and mostly single pollen grains recorded per second. Short term variations in 1-minute pollen concentrations could not be wholly explained by TKE. The new generation of automatic devices has the potential to increase our understanding of the distribution of bioaerosols in the air, provide insights into biological processes such as pollen release and dispersal mechanisms, and have the potential for us to conduct investigations into dose-response relationships and personal exposure to aeroallergens. [Display omitted] •Hourly pollen concentrations for individual taxa recorded by automatic sampler•Airborne pollen data with sub-hourly resolution are characterised for first time.•Data with sub-hourly resolution reveal the heterogenous nature of pollen in air.•Short-term peaks lasting minutes or seconds dominate sub-hourly pollen data.
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154231