(ragweed) pollen - A growing aeroallergen of concern in South Africa.

Background: Ragweed is an invasive, highly allergenic weed predicted to expand its habitat with warming global temperatures. Several species have been identified in South Africa for well over a century; however, its presence remained undetected by allergists and aerobiologists until the development of an extensive aerospora monitoring system across South African urban areas since 2019. This paper presents the inventory of preliminary investigation of the airborne pollen and the taxonomic identification of ragweed species.

High aerospora levels and associated atmospheric circulation patterns: Pretoria, South Africa.

At high exposure levels, airborne pollen grains and fungal spores (termed aerospora hereafter), can trigger severe allergic respiratory diseases. For South Africa's administrative capital Pretoria, which boasts dense vegetation within a large urban forest, it is valuable from a health perspective to understand daily atmospheric circulation patterns associated with high aerospora levels. Therefore, we utilised a daily aerospora grain count dataset collected in Pretoria from 08/2019-02/2023 to investigate atmospheric circulation patterns (derived from ERA5 reanalysis sea level pressure [SLP] and 500 hPa geopotential height [zg500] fields) associated with high-risk aerospora levels (aerospora grain count > 90th percentile).

The South African Pollen Monitoring Network: Insights from 2 years of national aerospora sampling (2019-2021).

Background: Pollen monitoring has been discontinuously undertaken in South Africa, a country with high biodiversity, a seasonal rainfall gradient, and nine biomes from arid to subtropical. The South African Pollen Monitoring Network was set up in 2019 to conduct the first long-term national aerospora monitoring across multiple biomes, providing weekly reports to allergy sufferers and healthcare providers.

Methods: Daily airborne pollen concentrations were measured from August 2019 to August 2021 in seven cities across South Africa.

A review of aeropalynology research in Nigeria: implication on public health and environmental research collaboration.

Background: Aeropalynology is a branch of palynology that studies the content of atmospheric pollen grains and spores. The amount, concentration, and distribution of these aerospora are influenced by the seasonal flowering of parent plants and variations in climatic conditions as well as local and regional variabilities. Atmospheric pollen grains and spores are diverse and have been identified as major biological particles that trigger immune cells to release inflammatory chemical mediators, inducing respiratory-linked and allergic conditions, such as pollinosis, among susceptible individuals.