László MAKRA¹, Zoltán CSÉPE¹, István MATYASOVSZKY², Áron József DEÁK³,
Elemér PÁL-MOLNÁR⁴ & Gábor TUSNÁDY^5
1Department of Climatology and Landscape Ecology, University of Szeged, HU-6722 Szeged, Egyetem u. 2, Hungary; corresponding author: L. Makra, e-mail: makra@geo.u-szeged.hu, Tel: +36 62 544 856, Fax: +36 62 544 624
²Department of Meteorology, Eötvös Loránd University, HU-1117 Budapest, Pázmány Péter st. 1/A, Hungary; E-mail: matya@ludens.elte.hu
³Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, University of Szeged, HU-6722 Szeged, Egyetem u. 2, Hungary; E-mail: aron@geo.u-szeged.hu
⁴Department of Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Petrology, University of Szeged, HU-6701 Szeged, P.O.B. 653, Hungary; E-mail: palm@geo.u-szeged.hu;
⁵Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, HU-1364 Budapest, P.O.B 127, Hungary, E-mail: tusnady.gabor@renyi.mta.hu

INTERDIURNAL VARIABILITY OF ARTEMISIA, BETULA AND POACEAE POLLEN COUNTS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH METEOROLOGICAL PARAMETERS

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The aim of the study is to analyze the potential reasons of the interdiurnal variations of the pollen counts of Artemisia, Betula and Poaceae for Szeged area of Southern Hungary in association with meteorological elements. The database includes a ten-year period (1997-2006) comprising the daily ratios of the pollen counts of the above-mentioned taxa (A) (value on the given day per value on the day before) for their pollen season. At the same time, daily values (value on the given day minus value on the day before) of 8 meteorological variables (mean temperature, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, temperature range, irradiance, relative humidity, wind speed and rainfall) are considered for the period April 1 − October 31, 1997-2006. Factor analysis with special transformation is used in order to determine the rank of importance, as well as the significance of the meteorological elements in determining the pollen variables for all the three taxa. As a result, irradiance (I), minimum temperature (Tmin) and wind speed (WS) are found to be the most significant, while mean temperature and relative humidity are the least relevant meteorological variables influencing daily pollen ratios, in decreasing order of their importance, respectively. After dividing the total data set into two groups, definitely stronger associations between the meteorological variables and the pollen variable are found in the data sets for which A≤1.00, compared to those for which A>1. This is due to the difference in the behaviour of the plants to stand environmental stress. Namely, the data sets for which A≤1.00 can be associated to lower summer temperatures with near-optimum phyto-physiological processes, while the category of A>1.00 is involved with high and extreme high temperatures modifying life functions and, accordingly, interrelationships of the meteorological and pollen variables.