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As a science, aerobiology emerged ninety years ago. Over the years many techniques have been developed to explore the diversity of fungal spores and pollen grains in atmospheric air. Currently, the most common are the Hirst type samplers. Slowly but surely a new era of automatic devices with the possibility of obtaining real-time results begins. They are particulary important in our time, when one-third of the world urban population suffers from allergies to pollen. This review explores the current understanding of the significance of the pollen and fungal spores monitoring, in relation to advances and limitations of the old and the new sampling techniques as well as the present sampling techniques and present knowledge of the molecular aspects of pollen allergens. Pollen and fungal spores monitoring promises to be a valuable tool for examination of the interface between multidisciplinary approaches, allowing us to understand the heterogeneity of nature from the pollen aerosol physics to the molecular and omical aspects of the pollen allergens characteristics and their interaction with our immune system both in health and disease. Thanks to the aerobiological research, using chemical, biochemical and microbiological analysis with metorological and satellite data, we provide the evidence of the long distance transport of the pollen and spore, their impact on the spread of viruses and bacteria and connections to other phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 3-7.09.2012, in Krakow hosted 5th (Jubilee) European Symposium on Aerobiology. The organizing and scientific committee from the Jagiellonian University, Medical College, Department of Clinical and Environmental Allergology, was supported by European Aerobiology Society (www.eas.polleninfo.org), Polish AIlergological Association and others. It was the international conference held for the first time in Poland, covering such a wide range of issues of aerobiology and related areas. The Symposium was attended by approximately 200 scientists from 29 countries around the world. During the Symposium 26 oral sessions were arranged. A workshop on methods of testing fungal spores was also organized. Much time was devoted to the practical application of the aerobiological and mycological research in medical practice. A novel computer-based system for aeroplankton monitoring was presented which enables identification of pollen, spores, yeast, and bacteria, and can successfully replace the conventional time-consuming microscopic examination and analysis of data. The conference was a great success, and many scientists from abroad expressed their wish to cooperate with aerobiology monitoring centers in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Aeroallergens of pollen and mold can exacerbate symptoms of allergic disease in already affected individuals thus local monitoring of the pollen counts is helpful for allergy diagnosis and management. This paper reports detailed results from determinations of airborne pollen concentrations during a pollen season in Łódź. Aims. The aim of the study was to analyze trends in the concentrations for 22 taxa of pollens in 2012. Methods. Concentrations of 20 pollen taxa (Alnus, Corylus, Carpinus, Betula, Populus, Fagus, Fraxinus, Quercus, Pinus, Picea, Salix, Juniperus/Taxus, Acer, Poaceae, Plantago, Rumex, Urtica, Artemisia, Ambrosia, Chenopodiaceae) and two spores (Cladosporium and Alternaria) were determined with a volumetric method from March to September 2012. Results. Our study found very high concentrations of Cladosporium spores, which persisted throughout all season and totally dominated in the aeroplankton. The total yearly count of specified pollen and mould taxa was 1035500. The sum of pollen grains reached 50461, so pollen grains contributed only 5% of the total count whereas the contribution of fungal spores was 95%. The total value of tree pollen taxa was about three times higher than the herbaceous taxa. The highest pollen count of all pollen tree types was recorded for Betula (2198), followed by Pinaceae (7713) and Alnus (3961). The prevailing taxa among pollen of herbaceous plants was Urtica (7672), Poacceae (2463), Artemisia (940). Total concentrations of more than 10000 grains in 1m³ persisted during 30 days of the season, and for 2 days the concentration was over 40000 in 1m³. Grains of ambrosia pollen were present in the aeroplankton of todz in numbers similar to those recorded in 2011 season. Information on pollen levels in Łódź air, conducted in 10th season by Aeroallergens Monitoring Centre (AmoC) in todz was offered to sensitized patients, physicians and scientists in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"AEROTOP" workshops, organised by Laboratory of Aeropalynology Institute of Environmental Biology Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, was a part of "Marie Curie European Project Trasfer of Knowledge". These interesting workshops were truly international and interdisciplinar scientifi c meetings with specialist groups of aerobiology and related areas like allergology, health care professions, plant biology, microbiology, phenology, meteorology and climatology, agricultural sciences, forestry, mathematical modeling and statistic, and other disciplines. It was concluded that only international cooperation with standarised methods could serve for the construction of forecasting models analysis of pollen fall and fungal spores concentrations. It is essential for creation and management of data-bases for monitoring results for local, regional and international needs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]