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An aerobiological survey was conducted through five consecutive years (2006-2010) at Worcester (England). The concentration of 20 allergenic fungal spore types was measured using a 7-day volumetric spore trap. The relationship between investigated fungal spore genera and selected meteorological parameters (maximum, minimum, mean and dew point temperatures, rainfall, relative humidity, air pressure, wind direction) was examined using an ordination method (redundancy analysis) to determine which environmental factors favoured their most abundance in the air and whether it would be possible to detect similarities between different genera in their distribution pattern. Redundancy analysis provided additional information about the biology of the studied fungi through the results of the Spearman's rank correlation. Application of the variance inflation factor in canonical correspondence analysis indicated which explanatory variables were auto-correlated and needed to be excluded from further analyses. Obtained information will be consequently implemented in the selection of factors that will be a foundation for forecasting models for allergenic fungal spores in the future.

Introduction: In aerobiological studies it is often necessary to compare concentration data recorded with different models of sampling instrument. Sampler efficiency typically varies from device to device, and depends on the target aerosol and local atmospheric conditions. To account for these differences inter-sampler correction factors may be applied, however for many pollen samplers and pollen taxa such correction factors do not exist and cannot be derived from existing published work., Materials and Methods: In this study, the relative efficiencies of the Burkard 7-Day Recording Volumetric Spore Trap, the Sampling Technologies Rotorod Model 20, and the Burkard Personal Volumetric Air Sampler were evaluated for Urticaceae and Poaceae pollen under field conditions. The influence of wind speed and relative humidity on these efficiency relationships was also assessed. Data for the two pollen taxa were collected during 2010 and 2011-2012, respectively., Results: The three devices were found to record significantly different concentrations for both pollen taxa, with the exception of the 7-Day and Rotorod samplers for Poaceae pollen. Under the range of conditions present during the study, wind speed was found to only have a significant impact on inter-sampler relationships involving the vertically-orientated Burkard Personal sampler, while no interaction between relative efficiency and relative humidity was observed., Conclusions: Data collected with the three models of sampler should only be compared once the appropriate correction has been made, with wind speed taken into account where appropriate.