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Aerobiological and phenological study of the main Poaceae species in Córdoba City (Spain) and the surrounding hills

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Abstract

This study reports on the flowering phenology of 12 Poaceae species in different types of plant cover (scrub, riverbank and pasture), with a view to creating a phenological calendar for the major species contributing most to airborne pollen concentrations. The study has been carried out from March to June between 2000 and 2013. Seventeen sampling sites in the study area were selected by accessibility, and predominantly, grasses grow in different land covers for phenological monitoring. Airborne pollen was collected using a Hirst-type volumetric spore trap. Results showed that longer phenological ranges were recorded in the wettest year and shorter ranges in the driest year. Over the study period, certain species displayed changes in the timing of flowering phenology. In pastureland and scrubland, a slight phenological delay over the study period has been recorded. In pastureland, some species—i.e., Bromus madritensis, B. diandrus and B. hordeaceus, Hordeum leporinum and Stipa capensis—displayed a delay in the timing of phenophases over the study period, including B. hordeaceus and B. madritensis on riverbank. Dactylis glomerata and Trisetaria panicea in scrub have been the only species with a clear advance; B. diandrus and B. madritensis a clear flowering delay. Lolium rigidum, Dactylis glomerata, Aegilops geniculata, in scrub, riverbank and pasture, and Arrhenatherum album, only in scrub, full flowering coincided with pollen peak in some populations during several years.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partly supported by project “CGL2014-54731-R. Study on phenological trends in plants of Western Mediterranean and its relation to climate change (FENOMED),” financed by the Minister of Science and Innovation. The authors are also grateful to the following projects for funding this work: “Analysis and Dynamic of Airborne Pollen in Andalusia (P10-RNM-5958),” the Research Project of Excellence of the Andalusia Regional Government.

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  1. Departamento de Botánica, Ecología y Fisiología Vegetal, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus de Rabanales, Edificio Celestino Mutis (C4), 14071, Córdoba, Spain

    Jesús Cebrino, Carmen Galán & Eugenio Domínguez-Vilches

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  1. Jesús Cebrino
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  2. Carmen Galán
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  3. Eugenio Domínguez-Vilches
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Correspondence to Jesús Cebrino.

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Cebrino, J., Galán, C. & Domínguez-Vilches, E. Aerobiological and phenological study of the main Poaceae species in Córdoba City (Spain) and the surrounding hills. Aerobiologia 32, 595–606 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-016-9434-6

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