Airborne olive pollen in Vigo (Northwest Spain): a survey to forecast the onset and daily concentrations of the pollen season

Temperature is one of the main factors affecting the start of flowering in tree species that flower at the beginning of spring. Knowledge of the chilling and heat needs required by plants to overcome the period of dormancy enables us to determine the onset of pollination, which is of great importance to allergy sufferers. This study attempted to obtain behaviour models with a view to determining both the onset of the olive pollen season and daily pollen concentrations during the pollination period in Vigo. Monitoring was carried out using a Lanzoni VPPS 2000 pollen trap, from 1995 to 2002 inclusive. Olea pollen is mainly detected during the spring, principally in May. Given the geographical location, the very limited presence of this tree in the study area and the low Olea pollen concentrations detected in northern Spain as a whole, the values recorded here in the atmosphere of Vigo are particularly striking. A strong correlation was observed between total quantity olive pollen collected over the season a...