Analysis of airborne pollen spectrum in Fethiye - Mugla, Turkey

Abstract

Deposited airborne pollen grains in the atmosphere of Fethiye were investigated in 2003 and 2004 with using a Durham sampler. Weekly deposited pollen grains in per cm2 were calculated. During two years, a total of 14,228 pollen grains/cm2 were counted, which belong to 41 taxa. Of these, 22 of them belong to arboreal plants (AP), 19 to non-arboreal plants (NAP) and unidentified pollen grains were recorded. In 2003, 6,519 pollen grains and in 2004, 7,709 pollen grains were counted. Of all the pollen grains 89.62 % were AP, 9.63 % were NAP, and 0.75 % were unidentified. According to our results, it can be reported that pollen season durations and total percentages of the most frequent pollen grains in Fethiye were; 7th-37 th week for Pinus spp. (42.46 %), 50th-29th week for Cupressaceae/Taxaceae (25.11 %), 12th-20th week for Morus spp. (9.29 %), 9th-44th week for Gramineae (4.25 %), 17th-29th week for Olea spp. (3.20 %), 10 th-23rd week for Platanus spp. (2.93 %), 12 th-25th week for Quercus spp. (2.34 %), 9 th-23rd week for Fraxinus spp. (1.07 %). 32.58% of the pollen sum was recorded in May. The season of maximum pollen fall was from March to May, with a prevalence of arboreal pollen grains.