- Spore Plumes

[Guest guest]

,

You often talk about spore plumes in your posts so thought you might

want to read this.

http://www.springerlink.com/app/home/contribution.asp?

wasp=ege9fdwuwkdvnm4yyjvw & referrer=parent & backto=issue,1,8;journal,11

,37;linkingpublicationresults,1:100429,1

International Journal of Biometeorology

Publisher: Springer-Verlag Heidelberg

ISSN: 0020-7128 (Paper) 1432-1254 (Online)

DOI: 10.1007/s00484-002-0127-1

Issue: Volume 46, Number 3

Date: August 2002

Pages: 107 - 117

Effects of meteorological conditions on spore plumes

M. Burch and E. Levetin

A1 Faculty of Biological Science, The University of Tulsa, 600 S.

College Ave., Tulsa, OK 74104, USA, e-mail: micah-burch@...

Abstract:

Abstract.Fungal spores are an ever-present component of the

atmosphere, and have long been known to trigger asthma and hay fever

symptoms in sensitive individuals. The atmosphere around Tulsa has

been monitored for airborne spores and pollen with Burkard spore

traps at several sampling stations. This study involved the

examination of the hourly spore concentrations on days that had

average daily concentrations near 50,000 spores/m3 or greater.

Hourly concentrations of Cladosporium, Alternaria, Epicoccum,

Curvularia, Pithomyces, Drechslera, smut spores, ascospores,

basidiospores, other, and total spores were determined on 4 days at

three sites and then correlated with hourly meteorological data

including temperature, rainfall, wind speed, dew point, air

pressure, and wind direction. On each of these days there was a

spore plume, a phenomenon in which spore concentrations increased

dramatically over a very short period of time. Spore plumes

generally occurred near midday, and concentrations were seen to

increase from lows around 20,000 total spores/m3 to highs over

170,000 total spores/m3 in 2 h. Multiple regression analysis of the

data indicated that increases in temperature, dew point, and air

pressure correlated with the increase in spore concentrations, but

no single weather variable predicted the appearance of a spore

plume. The proper combination of changes in these meteorological

parameters that result in a spore plume may be due to the changing

weather conditions associated with thunderstorms, as on 3 of the 4

days when spore plumes occurred there were thunderstorms later that

evening. The occurrence of spore plumes may have clinical

significance, because other studies have shown that sensitization to

certain spore types can occur during exposure to high spore

concentrations.