A new methodological approach to analyse intradiurnal pollen patterns in protected areas: the case of Sierra de las Nieves National Park (southern Iberian Peninsula)

Abstract

Analysing pollen dispersal dynamics in natural ecosystems is essential to unravel the effects of meteorological conditions on pollen dispersion and decipher the reproductive strategies of threatened species. However, most aerobiological studies have been conducted in cities. In this study, the intradiurnal airborne pollen dynamics of Sierra de las Nieves National Park (southern Spain) were studied by applying a novel methodology based on the combination of decision trees and clustering to identify the meteorological drivers of intradiurnal pollen dispersion. To that end, pollen patterns were studied in the main pollen types of this protected area during 2018–2024. The days with high pollen detection for each pollen type were clustered according to their intradiurnal pattern. The meteorological conditions of the grouped days were analysed using decision tree algorithms to identify possible causes of their intradiurnal pollen pattern. The highest pollen detection usually occurred around 12:00 and 14:00 h. Most pollen types exhibited a peak during daylight, corresponding to the typical pattern of local pollen sources. Some pollen types, such as Castanea and Urticaceae, exhibited a nocturnal peak characteristic of distant pollen transport. Most pollen types had two different intradiurnal patterns triggered by different meteorological conditions, except Plantago, Poaceae and Quercus. The most relevant variables determining the intradiurnal patterns observed were the frequency of winds blowing from the northwest and northeast quadrants, relative humidity and maximum temperatures. Combining cluster analysis with decision trees proved to be of great utility to analyse the influence of weather conditions on intradiurnal pollen patterns.

Keywords

Airborne pollen / Meteorological conditions / Allergy / National Park / Aerobiology / Spain

References

[1] ACAMET (2024) Cazatormentas. La web de los aficionados a la meteorología. https://cazatormentas.com/ Accessed 16 Mar 2025 (in Spanish)

[2] Alba F, De La Guardia CD, Comtois P. The effect of meteorological parameters on diurnal patterns of airborne olive pollen concentration. Grana, 2000, 39(4): 200-208

[3] Albach DC, Meudt HM, Oxelman B. Piecing together the “new” Plantaginaceae. Am J Bot, 2005, 92(2): 297-315

[4] Alcázar P, Galán C, Cariñanos P, Domíngez-Vilches E. Diurnal variation of airborne pollen at two different heights. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol, 1999, 9: 85-89

[5] Alcázar P, Ørby PV, Oteros J, Skjøth C, Hertel O, Galán C. Cluster analysis of variations in the diurnal pattern of grass pollen concentrations in Northern Europe (Copenhagen) and Southern Europe (Cordoba). Aerobiologia, 2019, 35(2): 269-281

[6] Baldo BA, Chensee QJ, Howden MEH, Sharp PJ. Allergens from plantain (Plantago lanceolata). Int Arch Allergy Immunol, 2004, 68(4): 295-304

[7] Bañares Á, Blanca G, Güemes J, Moreno JC, Ortiz S (2004) Atlas y Libro Rojo de la Flora Vascular Amenazada de España. Dirección General de Conservación de la Naturaleza, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente., España. (in Spanish)

[8] Becerra-Parra M (2006) Ordenación y aprovechamiento de los pinsapares rondeños durante el siglo XIX. La memoria de Antonio Láynez. Editorial La Serranía, S.L, Ronda. (in Spanish)

[9] Beggs PJ, Šikoparija B, Smith M. Aerobiology in the international journal of biometeorology, 1957–2017. Int J Biometeorol, 2017, 61(1): 51-58

[10] Blanca G, Cabezudo B, Cueto M, Morales Torres CS (2011) Flora Vascular de Andalucía Oriental, 2a ed. Universidades de Almería, Granada, Jaén y Málaga., Granada (España). (in Spanish)

[11] Bonofiglio T, Orlandi F, Sgromo C, Romano B, Fornaciari M. Influence of temperature and rainfall on timing of olive (Olea europaea) flowering in southern Italy. N Z J Crop Hortic Sci, 2008, 36(1): 59-69

[12] Bousquet J, van Cauwenberge P, Khaltaev N. Allergic rhinitis and its impact on asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2001, 108(5): S147-S334

[13] Buters JTM, Antunes C, Galveias A, Bergmann KC, Thibaudon M, Galán C, Schmidt-Weber C, Oteros J. Pollen and spore monitoring in the world. Clin Transl Allergy, 2018, 8: 9

[14] Cabezudo B, Casimiro-Soriguer Solanas F, Pérez-Latorre AV. Vascular flora of the Sierra de Las Nieves National Park and its surroundings (Andalusia, Spain). Phytotaxa, 2022, 534(1): 1-111

[15] Calzada D, Cremades-Jimeno L, López-Ramos M, Cárdaba B. Peptide allergen immunotherapy: a new perspective in olive-pollen allergy. Pharmaceutics, 2021, 13(7): 1007

[16] Cariñanos P, Galán C, Alcazar P, Dominguez E. Diurnal variation of biological and non-biological particles in the atmosphere of Córdoba, Spain. Aerobiologia, 1999, 153177-182

[17] D’Amato G, Liccardi G. Pollen-related allergy in the European Mediterranean area. Clin Exp Allergy, 1994, 24(3): 210-219

[18] D’Amato G, Spieksma FTM. Allergenic pollen in Europe. Grana, 1991, 30(1): 67-70

[19] D’Amato G, Spieksma FTM, Liccardi G, Jäger S, Russo M, Kontou-Fili K, Nikkels H, Wüthrich B, Bonini S. Pollen-related allergy in Europe. Allergy, 1998, 53(6): 567-578

[20] D’Amato G, Cecchi L, Bonini S, Nunes C, Annesi-Maesano I, Behrendt H, Liccardi G, Popov T, Van Cauwenberge P. Allergenic pollen and pollen allergy in Europe. Allergy, 2007, 62(9): 976-990

[21] Dahl Å, Galán C, Hajkova L, Pauling A, Sikoparija B, Smith M, Vokou D (2012) The onset, course and intensity of the pollen season. In: Allergenic pollen. Springer Netherlands, pp 29–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4881-1_3

[22] de Gálvez-Montañez E, Trigo MM, Recio M, Picornell A. Flowering seasonality and airborne pollen recent trends in Sierra de Las Nieves, the southernmost National Park in continental Spain. Agric for Meteorol, 2024, 359: 110295

[23] de Veen van, Akdis M (2014) Mechanisms of immune regulation in allergy. In: EAACI Global Atlas of Allergy. European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Zurich, pp 90–91

[24] Emberlin J, Norris-Hill J. Spatial variation of pollen deposition in North London. Grana, 1991, 30: 190-195

[25] Environmental Modeling Center, National Centers for Environmental Prediction, National Weather Service (2001) Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS). https://data.nodc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/iso?id=gov.noaa.ncdc:C00379# Accessed 19 Sep 2025

[26] Galán C, Tormo R, Cuevas J, Infante F, Domínguez E. Theoretical daily variation patterns of airborne pollen in the southwest of Spain. Grana, 1991, 30(1): 201-209

[27] Galán C, González PC, Teno PA, Vilches ED. Manual de calidad y gestión de la red española de aerobiología, 2007, Córdoba (in Spanish), Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Córdoba

[28] García-Mozo H, Dominguez-Vilches E, Galán C. Airborne allergenic pollen in natural areas: Hornachuelos Natural Park, Cordoba, Southern Spain. Ann Agric Environ Med, 2007, 14: 63-69

[29] García-Mozo H, Hernández-Ceballos MA, Trigo MM, Galán C. Wind dynamics’ influence on south Spain airborne olive-pollen during African intrusions. Sci Total Environ, 2017, 609: 1340-1348

[30] Group EQWGalán C, Smith M, Thibaudon M, Frenguelli G, Oteros J, Gehrig R, Berger U, Clot B, Brandao R. Pollen monitoring: minimum requirements and reproducibility of analysis. Aerobiologia, 2014, 30(4): 385-395

[31] Halse RR. Nomenclature of allergenic plants. I Annals Allergy, 1984, 53: 291-310

[32] Hernández-Ceballos MA, García-Mozo H, Galán C. Cluster analysis of intradiurnal holm oak pollen cycles at peri-urban and rural sampling sites in southwestern Spain. Int J Biometeorol, 2015, 59(8): 971-982

[33] Hernández-Ceballos MA, López-Orozco R, Ruiz P, Galán C, García-Mozo H. Exploring the influence of meteorological conditions on the variability of olive pollen intradiurnal patterns: differences between pre- and post-peak periods. Sci Total Environ, 2024, 956: 177231

[34] Hirst JM. An automatic volumetric spore trap. Ann Appl Biol, 1952, 39(2): 257-265

[35] Hothorn T, Zeileis A, Cheng E, Ong S. partykit: a modular toolkit for recursive partytioning in R. J Mach Learn Res, 2015, 16(1): 3905-3909

[36] Jones MD. Time of day of pollen shedding of some hay fever plants. J Allergy, 1952, 23(3): 247-258

[37] Junta de Andalucía (2019) Datos Espaciales de Referencia de Andalucía (DERA). https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/institutodeestadisticaycartografia/DERA/index.htm Accessed 16 Mar 2025. (in Spanish)

[38] Junta de Andalucía (2023) Portal Ambiental de Andalucía. https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioambiente/portal/areas-tematicas/espacios-protegidos/legislacion-autonomica-nacional/parques-naturales/parque-natural-sierra-de-las-nieves Accessed 16 Mar 2025. (in Spanish)

[39] Junta de Andalucía (2025) Red de Información Ambiental de Andalucía Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio, Junta de Andalucía. https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioambiente/portal/acceso-rediam Accessed 19 Sep 2025. (in Spanish)

[40] Kassambara A, Mundt F (2020) Factoextra: Extract and visualize the results of multivariate data analyses. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=factoextra Accessed 30 Dec 2024

[41] Latałowa M, Uruska A, Pe˛dziszewska A, Góra M, Dawidowska A. Diurnal patterns of airborne pollen concentration of the selected tree and herb taxa in Gdańsk (northern Poland). Grana, 2005, 44(3): 192-201

[42] León-Ruiz E, Alcázar P, Domínguez-Vilches E, Galán C. Study of Poaceae phenology in a Mediterranean climate. Which species contribute most to airborne pollen counts?. Aerobiologia, 2011, 27(1): 37-50

[43] Ley 9/2021 (2021) de 1 de julio, de declaración del Parque Nacional de la Sierra de las Nieves. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE). España. (in Spanish)

[44] Ley 2/1989 (1989) de 18 de julio, por la que se aprueba el Inventario de Espacios Naturales Protegidos de Andalucía y se establecen medidas adicionales para su protección. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE). España. (in Spanish)

[45] Marcos C, Rodriguez FJ, Luna I, Jato V, González R. Pinus pollen aerobiology and clinical sensitization in northwest Spain. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol, 2001, 87(1): 39-42

[46] Norris-Hill J, Emberlin J. Diurnal variation of pollen concentration in the air of north-central london. Grana, 1991, 30(1): 229-234

[47] Oteros J, García-Mozo H, Hervás-Martínez C, Galán C. Year clustering analysis for modelling olive flowering phenology. Int J Biometeorol, 2013, 57(4): 545-555

[48] Oteros J, Sofiev M, Smith M, Clot B, Damialis A, Prank M, Werchan M, Wachter R, Weber A, Kutzora S, Heinze S, Herr CEW, Menzel A, Bergmann KC, Traidl-Hoffmann C, Schmidt-Weber CB, Buters JTM. Building an automatic pollen monitoring network (ePIN): selection of optimal sites by clustering pollen stations. Sci Total Environ, 2019, 688: 1263-1274

[49] Pérez-Badia R, Vaquero C, Sardinero S, Galán C, García-Mozo H. Intradiurnal variations of allergenic tree pollen in the atmosphere of Toledo (central Spain). Ann Agric Environ Med, 2010, 17: 269-275

[50] Pérez-Latorre AV, Navas P, Navas D, Gil Y, Cabezudo B. Datos sobre la flora y vegetación de la Serranía de Ronda (Málaga). Abm, 1998, 23: 149-191 in Spanish)

[51] Pérez-Latorre AV, Casimiro-Soriguer Solanas F, Hidalgo Triana N, Cabezudo B. Vegetación del parque nacional sierra de Las nieves y su entorno (Málaga, españa). Abm, 2025, 50: 20465 in Spanish)

[52] Picornell A, Recio M, Trigo MM, Cabezudo B. Preliminary study of the atmospheric pollen in Sierra de Las Nieves Natural Park (Southern Spain). Aerobiologia, 2019, 35(3): 571-576

[53] Picornell A, Recio M, Ruiz-Mata R, García-Sánchez J, Cabezudo B, Trigo MM. Medium- and long-range transport events of Alnus pollen in western Mediterranean. Int J Biometeorol, 2020, 64(10): 1637-1647

[54] Picornell A, Oteros J, Ruiz-Mata R, Recio M, Trigo MM, Martínez-Bracero M, Lara B, Serrano-García A, Galán C, García-Mozo H, Alcázar P, Pérez-Badia R, Cabezudo B, Romero-Morte J, Rojo J. Methods for interpolating missing data in aerobiological databases. Environ Res, 2021, 200: 111391

[55] Piotrowska-Weryszko K, Weryszko-Chmielewska E, Sulborska A, Konarska A, Dmitruk M, Kaszewski BM. Amaranthaceae pollen grains as indicator of climate change in Lublin (Poland). Environ Res, 2021, 193: 110542

[56] PNOA (2024) Plan Nacional de Ortofotografía Aérea. https://pnoa.ign.es/ Accessed 16 Mar 2025

[57] Puc M. Infuence of meteorological parameters and air pollution on hourly fluctuation of birch (Betula L.) and ash (Fraxinus L.) airborne pollen. Ann Agric Environ Med, 2012, 19: 660-665

[58] QGIS Development Team (2025) QGIS Geographic Information System. Version 3.32.3. Retrieved from http://qgis.org

[59] R Core Team (2024) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. https://www.R-project.org/ Accessed 30 Dec 2024

[60] Ravindra K, Goyal A, Mor S. Influence of meteorological parameters and air pollutants on the airborne pollen of city Chandigarh, India. Sci Total Environ, 2022, 818: 151829

[61] Recio M, Trigo MM, Toro FJ, Cabezudo B. Incidencia del polen de Plantago en la atmósfera de Málaga y su relación con los parámetros meteorológicos. Abm, 1997, 22: 103-113 in Spanish)

[62] Recio M, Picornell A, Trigo MM, Gharbi D, García-Sánchez J, Cabezudo B. Intensity and temporality of airborne Quercus pollen in the southwest Mediterranean area: correlation with meteorological and phenoclimatic variables, trends and possible adaptation to climate change. Agric for Meteorol, 2018, 250–251: 308-318

[63] Reddi CS, Reddi NS. Relation of pollen release to pollen concentrations in air. Grana, 1985, 24(2): 109-113

[64] Ribeiro H, Abreu I. A 10-year survey of allergenic airborne pollen in the city of Porto (Portugal). Aerobiologia, 2014, 30(3): 333-344

[65] Ribeiro H, Cunha M, Abreu I. Definition of main pollen season using a logistic model. Ann Agric Environ Med, 2007, 14: 259-264

[66] Ribeiro H, Oliveira M, Abreu I. Intradiurnal variation of allergenic pollen in the city of Porto (Portugal). Aerobiologia, 2008, 24(3): 173-177

[67] Ring J. Davos declaration: allergy as a global problem. Allergy, 2012, 67(2): 141-143

[68] Rojo J, Rapp A, Lara B, Fernández-González F, Pérez-Badia R. Effect of land uses and wind direction on the contribution of local ources to airborne pollen. Sci Total Environ, 2015, 538: 672-682

[69] Rojo J, Picornell A, Oteros J. Aerobiology: the computational tool for biological data in the air. Methods Ecol Evol, 2019, 10(8): 1371-1376

[70] Rolph G, Stein A, Stunder B. Real-time environmental applications and display system: READY. Environ Model Softw, 2017, 95: 210-228

[71] Rowe AH. Pine pollen allergy. J Allergy, 1939, 10(4): 377-378

[72] Rueda Gaona T (2023) Red Española de Reservas de la BIOSFERA. http://rerb.oapn.es/red-espanola-de-reservas-de-la-biosfera/reservas-de-la-biosfera-espanolas/mapa/sierra-de-las-nieves/descripcion-general Accessed 7 Jun 2025. (in Spanish)

[73] Ščevková J, Dušička J, Mičieta K, Somorčík J. Diurnal variation in airborne pollen concentration of six allergenic tree taxa and its relationship with meteorological parameters. Aerobiologia, 2015, 31(4): 457-468

[74] Schramm PJ, Brown CL, Saha S, Conlon KC, Manangan AP, Bell JE, Hess JJ. A systematic review of the effects of temperature and precipitation on pollen concentrations and season timing, and implications for human health. Int J Biometeorol, 2021, 65(10): 1615-1628

[75] Selle D, Lorenzoni FC, Sernagiotto A, D’Ambros G, Bellencin P. The first approach towards recognising allergy-provoking flora in Belluno and its relationship with allergic phenomena. Aerobiologia, 1992, 8(3): 369-377

[76] Silva Palacios I, Tormo Molina R, Muñoz Rodríguez AF. Influence of wind direction on pollen concentration in the atmosphere. Int J Biometeorol, 2000, 44(3): 128-133

[77] Silva Palacios I, Tormo Molina R, Muñoz Rodríguez AF. The importance of interactions between meteorological conditions when interpreting their effect on the dispersal of pollen from homogeneously distributed sources. Aerobiologia, 2007, 23(1): 17-26

[78] Solanas FCS, Laotorre AVP, Cabezudo B. Aportaciones a la flora vascular del Espacio Natural Sierra de Las Nieves (Málaga, España) II. Abm, 2021

[79] Stein AF, Draxler RR, Rolph GD, Stunder BJB, Cohen MD, Ngan F. NOAA’s hysplit atmospheric transport and dispersion modeling system. Bull Am Meteorol Soc, 2015, 96(12): 2059-2077

[80] Suarez-Suarez M, Costa-Gómez I, Maya-Manzano JM, Rojo J, Hentges F, Porcsin I, Sarda-Estève R, Baisnée D, Schmidt-Weber C, Buters J. Diurnal pattern of Poaceae and Betula pollen flight in Central Europe. Sci Total Environ, 2023, 900: 165799

[81] Subiza J, Jerezb M, Jiméneza JA, Narganes MJ, Cabrera M, Varela S, Subiza E. Allergenic pollen and pollinosis in Madrid. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 1995, 96(1): 15-23

[82] Therneau TM, Atkinson B (2019) Recursive partitioning and regression trees. R package (version 4.1-15). [Computer software]. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rpart Accessed 28 Jan 2025

[83] Tosunoglu A, Bicakci A. Seasonal and intradiurnal variation of airborne pollen concentrations in Bodrum, SW Turkey. Environ Monit Assess, 2015, 187(4): 167

[84] Trigo MM, Recio M, Toro FJ, Cabezudo B. Comportamiento estacional e intradiurno del polen de Poaceae en la atmósfera de Málaga y su relación con los parámetros meteorológicos. Botanica Macaronesica, 1996, 23: 131-142(in Spanish)

[85] Trigo MM, Recio M, Toro FJ, Cabezudo B. Intradiurnal fluctuations in airborne pollen in Málaga (S. Spain): a quantitative method. Grana, 1997, 36(1): 39-43

[86] Trigo MM, Jato V, Fernández D, Galán C. Atlas aeropalinológico de España, 2008, León, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de León(in Spanish)

[87] Uguz U, Guvensen A, Tort NS. Annual and intradiurnal variation of dominant airborne pollen and the effects of meteorological factors in Çeşme (Izmir, Turkey). Environ Monit Assess, 2017, 189(10): 530

[88] Valdés B, Díez MJ, Fernández L. Atlas polínico de Andalucía occidental, 1987, Cádiz, Instituto de desarrollo regional de la Universidad de Sevilla(in Spanish)

[89] Vázquez LM, Galán C, Domínguez-Vilches E. Influence of meteorological parameters on Olea pollen concentrations in Córdoba (South-western Spain). Int J Biometeorol, 2003, 48283-90

[90] Wallace JM, Hobbs PV. Atmospheric science: an introductory survey, 20062Netherlands, Elsevier

[91] Ward JJH, Hook ME. Application of an hierarchical grouping procedure to a problem of grouping profiles. Educ Psychol Meas, 1963, 23(1): 69-81

[92] Zemmer F, Cristofori A, Cristofolini F, Gottardini E. Aerobiology in alpine environments: exploring pollen biodiversity and its impacts on human health. Sci Total Environ, 2024, 955: 176908

Funding

Universidad de Málaga

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s)