Airborne pollen fall in Koycegiz specially protected area (SW Turkey)

Abstract

Airborne pollen fall in the atmosphere of Koycegiz was investigated in 2003 and 2004 using, a Durham sampler. Pollen grains per cm(2) were weekly calculated. During the two years, 17,470 pollen grains/cm(2) (9,061 in 2003 and 8,409 in 2004) belonging to 41 taxa as well as unidentified pollen grains were recorded. Thirteen plant taxa take a place, which encountered up to 1% of the total and it can be reported that pollen season durations and total percentages for the dominaing pollen grains in Fethiye were 8-35(th) week for Pinus spp. (48.01%), 6-41(st) week for Gramineae (8.70%), 10-19(th) week for Morus spp. (5.53%), 48-28(th) week for Cupressaceae/Taxaceae (5.09%), 10-24(th) week for Platanus spp. (4.64%), 48-7(th) week for Alnus spp. (4.49%), 17-29(th) week for Olea europea (3.91%), 48-22(nd) week for Fraxinus spp. (3.36%), 11-25(th) week for Quercus spp. (2.64%), 12-37(th) week for Plantago spp. (1.73%), 4-16(th) week for Liquidambar orientalis (1.21%), 10-30(th) week for Urticaceae (1.19%) and 13-43(rd) week for Amaranthaceae/ Chenopodiaceae (1.17%). 35.36% of total pollen grains were recorded in April. The pollen calendar presented in this paper is mainly characterized by high amounts of Pinus spp., Gramineae, Morus spp. and Cupressaceae/Taxaceae pollen grains. In addition, a tertiary relic, Liquid-ambar orientalis pollen grains, was recorded as predominant pollen type for the first time in this paper.