Since 1991, the aerobiology research team of the University of Malaga has been sampling
and studying the atmospheric pollen content in different localities of Malaga province (SW
Spain) (Recio et al. 1998, 2006). Nevertheless, the northwest part of the province had not
been studied yet. In order to complete this missing information, a pollen trap was installed
in Ronda in December 2016. This locality, the biggest city in the northwest of Malaga
province, is located in a rural area close to the natural Parks Sierra de las Nieves and Sierra
de Grazalema, surrounded by crops, natural and semi-natural vegetation. The objectives of
this preliminary study were to determinate the atmospheric pollen behaviour of the main
taxa registered during winter and spring months in Ronda, as well as compare them with
the data obtained by Malaga city sampling station during the same period in order to search
for significant differences.
The samplings were made by means of two Hirst-type volumetric pollen traps (Hirst 1952).
One of them was placed on the roof of the Perez de Guzman High School (Ronda) and the
other was located on the roof of the Faculty of Sciences building (Malaga). Samples
obtained were mounted and counted according to the methodology proposed by the Spanish
Aerobiology Network, the REA (Galán et al. 2007).
Significant differences (α = 0.05) between Ronda and Malaga were found regarding the
daily concentration of pollen. These differences were particularly detected for some pollen
types such as Mercurialis, Fraxinus, Urticaceae and Cupressaceae. In general, we found
higher pollen concentration levels in Ronda. We can see a delay for some taxa in Ronda.
The higher concentrations of pollen detected in Ronda can be justified by the abundant
surrounding vegetation. The differences in concentration and seasonal behaviour detected
for some taxa can be explained by the different thermotype and ombrothype of the two
sampling sites and the natural distribution and abundance of these taxa in the province.
Buscar en Dimension