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Modeling of oak pollen dispersal on the landscape level with a mesoscale atmospheric model

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Abstract

We present the extension and application of the mesoscale atmospheric meteorology model METRAS for dispersion of oak pollen. We incorporated functions for pollen emission, pollen viability and pollen deposition into METRAS and simulated pollen dispersal on a scale of up to 200 km. The basis of the simulations is a real landscape structure that includes topography, land use, and the location and size of oak stands. We simulated the oak pollen dispersion of one single oak stand with an estimated annual pollen production of 1 billion pollen grains/m2 forest surface on two exemplary days of the flowering season in 2000. Depending on the meteorological situation of the simulated days, a pollen cloud with about 10 pollen/m3 may extend up to 30 km from the source. Downstream of the oak stand, approximately 1,000 pollen/m2 deposited up to a distance of 25 km, and lower amounts of pollen deposited up to 100 km away. These values of pollen concentration and deposition lay within the range of published field studies. Overall, it is shown that mesoscale atmospheric models are applicable to simulate pollen dispersal on the landscape level.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding, Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products, Sieker Landstr. 2, D-22927, Grosshansdorf, Germany

    Silvio Schueler

  2. Department of Genetics, Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape, Hauptstr. 7, A-1140, Vienna, Austria

    Silvio Schueler

  3. Meteorological Institute, Center for Marine and Climate Research, University of Hamburg, Bundesstraße 55, D-20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Katharina Heinke Schlünzen

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  1. Silvio Schueler
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  2. Katharina Heinke Schlünzen
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Correspondence to Silvio Schueler.

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Schueler, S., Schlünzen, K.H. Modeling of oak pollen dispersal on the landscape level with a mesoscale atmospheric model. Environ Model Assess 11, 179–194 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-006-9044-8

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