Figure 1 - uploaded by Benjamin Essien
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Map of Dekina Local Government Area, Kogi State showing Anyigba town (SOURCE: After Essien, 2014).
Context in source publication
Context 1
... view of the fact that winds disseminate freshly released palynomorphs according to their seasonal fluctuating direction and strength, it is important to choose a time frame for maximum palynomorphs production and optimal wind action for such a study to be carried out for all seasons (Essien et al., 2013). These airborne palynomorphs can be trapped with specially designed equipment (Tauber, 1977 Figure 1. ...
Citations
... The upthrust of palynomorphs into the atmosphere may occur by natural release mechanisms, through the action of raindrops, turbulent winds or anthropogenic activities among others and fruiting of fungi has been associated with release and dislodgement of spore bearing structures. Wind speed and direction equally play significant role in the release, up-thrust, transportation and concentration of non-pollen palynomorphs in the atmosphere (Essien, 2014, Essien, 2020. In the dry season during the harmattan, the North East trade wind which moves latitudinally, transport palynomorphs including dust from the north to the southern part of Nigeria (Adeonipekun and John, 2011). ...
... Also, the flowering pattern of individual plants play important role in determining the abundance and taxa of pollen circulating in the atmosphere (Essien, 2020). Airborne pollen grains generally travel short distances; however, when they are blown into the upper strata of the atmosphere, pollen grains travel long distances, before they are deposited (Essien, 2020;Essien, 2014). Meteorological factors, in particular temperature, precipitation, humidity and wind speed strongly influence airborne pollen counts (Essien and Agwu, 2013;Agwu and Osibe, 1992). ...
... The study also showed that the airborne pollen grains were unevenly distributed throughout the year with many sporadically dispersed monthly and at the study locations. Similar findings were reported by Essien (2014); Agwu and Osibe (1992) and Njokuocha and Agwu (2007). It could also be pointed out that the relative abundance of the pollen of most of these plants in all the location is not only as a result of their copious pollen producing capacity and anemophilous mode of pollination, but their general distribution at all the sampling locations. ...
... The spores arise from saprophytic or parasitic organisms (fungi) and are present in the air throughout the world, often as dominant biological components [2]. Fungal spores are among the most abundant airborne organic particles and least well known aeroallergens in Nigeria [3][4] and in countries where aeroallergens have been investigated [2], [5]. The spore wall which is made up of two layers (exosporium and endosporium) consists chemically of acetyl-glucosamine polymers (chitin) and β-glucomannans often with waxes and mostly coated with extracellular polysaccharides [2]. ...
... These fungal spores that float in the atmosphere in large numbers have been reported to enter human nostrils, eyes, mouth or come in contact with the skin eliciting certain sensitization or irritation that promotes itching and inflammation of the affected organs. The spores and their hyphal fragments were also reported to be the main cause or exacerbation of some respiratory disorders such as asthma, allergic reactions and pathogenic infections of the respiratory tract [4]. Some invasive airborne fungal spores have been associated with nosocomial infections of patients with tissue or solid organ transplant/ surgery [27], [51]. ...
Fungal spores and hyphal fragments have been associated with out-door allergens and constitute human, animal and plant pathogens with long history of epidemiology. Airborne fungal spores of Akoko environment during the months of October 2016 to September 2017 were trapped and analyzed palynologicaly to determine the genera with allergic and pathogenic implications. Very high concentrations of these aerospora were documented. Out of 35 fungal spore type identified, the most commonly documented genera were species of Nigrospora, Endophragmiella, Ustilago, Botryodiplodia, Curvularia, Pithomyces, Corynespora and Venturia among others. The availability of these airborne fungal spore types is not only a reflection of their degree of abundance in the atmosphere, but an indication of the availability of host plants and other spore sources in the region. Statistical analysis shows that there was significant difference in the mean monthly fungal spore recorded. Multiple comparisons (using DMRT) showed that the mean fungal spores recorded in the month of October was significantly different (P<0.05) from that recorded in the month of July but not significantly different from those recorded for other months. Seasonal variation showed that the highest mean monthly fungal spore abundance were more from June - July and October - December due to higher sporulation activities by the fungi. This study would provide relevant information that could be useful in monitoring the frequency and intensity of fungal allergies and other pathogenic disease conditions of plants, animals and humans in the study environment and proffer adequate measures for safety health and environment.
... Studies on the abundance and types of palynomorphs circulating in the atmosphere and their seasonal occurrence and implications have been conducted in various parts of Nigeria by some authors (Ezikanyi et al., 2016;Essien, 2014;Ezikanyi and Sakwari, 2018). Similarly authors have also correlated the abundance of these palynomorphs in the atmosphere with some meteorological factors and reported that they are at increase particularly during the dry season because of some factors like low relative humidity and high wind speed which aid their aerial transport (Njokuocha, 2006;Adekanmbi and Olugbenga. ...
... Njokuocha (2006) reported that high numbers of pollen grains are observed during the late rainy season-early dry season/ Harmattan (September to December). These variations in the monthly palynomorphs counts of families and individual palynomorphs types at different locations also suggest that the abundance of palynomorphs is influenced not only by the meteorological factors but also the existing vegetation type as well as flowering phenology of the plants among others (Agwu and Osibe, 1992;Agwu, 1997;Essien, 2014). Apart from the meteorological factors, the concentration of atmospheric pollen content was as well considered to be greatly affected by the geographical distribution of the pollen producers and the period of main pollen release (Calleja et al., 1993). ...
The diversity and abundance of airborne palynomorphs and other bio particles in the atmosphere of Obukpa was studied for a period of three months, from June through August 2010. The palynomorphs
were trapped with Tauber sampler mounted at three locations during the period of study. A total of three thousand, eight hundred and ninety-nine (3,899) palynomorphs consisting of 3365 (86.3%) pollen grains, 496 (12.72%) fungal spores and 38 (0.98%) of other bio particles (insect parts and trichomes) was identified from the study. The pollen types which dominated the atmosphere of the sampled area included members of Combretaceae/Melastomataceae, Poaceae, Asteraceae, Amarathaceae, Lannea sp., Pentaclethra macrophylla and Alchornea cordifolia. The identified pollen grains were representatives of some trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses. The major contributors to the fugal aerospora were Glomerularia sp., Nigrospora sp., Cercospora sp., Asperosporium sp., Fusoma, Dreschlera, Helminthosporium and so on. Comparatively, there were variations in the quantity of the trapped palynomorphs during the three months study period which could have resulted from differences in the flowering period of the plants as well as influence of some meteorological factors such as rainfall, temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and wind direction.
Key words: Palynomorphs, Pollen types, Bio particles, Fungal spores, Atmosphere
... The airborne pollen assemblage trapped in this study generally reflects the regional vegetation of the catchment area which depicts tropical rainforest type ( Tables [8,27,32,33,34,35], [36,37], [3,38,39,40,7], [41,42]. The site to site variation in number of pollen types portrays not only the existence of subtype vegetations but also the floristic heterogeneity of the vegetation of the study area. ...
... Even though sometimes, some of them are blown into these areas from distant places, experienced palynologists are most of the time able to detect these re-deposited pollen and spores by differences in preservation (e.g. colour, corrosion, wear), ecological or stratigraphical inconsistencies and other associated evidences of being redeposited [5]. ...
... Pollen encountered in this study totaled 4,452. The grass family was reported to be the major contributors to airborne pollen assemblage in most aeropalynological studies [5,8,9,13,25]. Mabberley [26] in Latorre and Belmonte [27] reported that the Poaceae family has a cosmopolitan distribution representing 20% of the world's vegetation cover. ...
... Also, the flowering pattern of individual plants play important role in determining the abundance and taxa of pollen circulating in the atmosphere [11]. Airborne pollen grains generally travel short distances; however, when they are blown into the upper strata of the atmosphere, pollen grains travel long distances, before they are deposited [12]. Meteorological factors, in particular temperature, precipitation, humidity and wind speed strongly influence airborne pollen counts [13,7]. ...
... In this study, eighteen (18) allergic pollen types were documented. These pollen types have also been reported in previous aerobiological studies in Nsukka (Agwu, 1997;Agwu et al., 2004;Njokuocha and Osayi, 2005;Njokuocha, 2006), Port Harcourt (Agwu, 2001), Aguata (Njokuocha and Ezenwajiaku, 2010), Anyigba (Essien, 2014;Essien et al., 2016), Ayetoro (Adeonipekun et al., 2016); Abuja (Ezike et al., 2016); Gbagada (Adeniyi et al., 2018a); Jabalur, Bengal, India (Chakraborty et al., 2001;Mishra et al., 2002). ...
Analysis of the atmospheric pollen content of an area is important in providing standard baseline information on environmental change, vegetation type, species composition and their utilization for safety health and sustainable development. This study was carried out in fourty randomly selected locations/ sites to examine comparatively, the temporal and spatial relationship between the dominant aeropollen and allergy-related cases in Akoko environment, Ondo State, Nigeria between October, 2016 to September, 2017. The aeropollen were collected with Modified Tauber Sampler using simple random sampling technique and analyzed palynologically. Results showed that a total of 28,205 aeropollen grains belonging to 18 dominant aeropollen types were encountered. The dominant aeropollen include Azadirachta indica, Carica papaya, Casuarina equisetifolia, Ceiba pentandra, Cocos nucifera, Delonix regia, and those of the families Asteraceae, Cyperaceae and Poaceae. Aeropollen grains were most abundant between September and January. Rainfall and relative humidity had more negative effect on aeropollen concentration. Furthermore, the occurrence of these dominant aeropollen indicates the availability of allergenic taxa in the atmosphere. A total of 3,826 patients were diagnosed of allergy-related cases with the highest values of 924 and 875 recorded in October and July respectively when aeropollen were most abundant in the studied environment. Adequate environmental monitoring through pollen rain analysis and avoidance of exposure to allergens during their season of prevalence are recommended for safety health and environmental sustainability. Extraction, isolation and quantification of allergenic proteins in the dominant aeropollen grains will provide baseline data for immunological research in the studied area.
... Allergic pollen grains belong to three broad categories of plants: grasses, weeds and trees. Allergy to pollen grains is called pollinosis Essien 2014). Generally pollen that causes allergies is that of anemophilous plants. ...
The present study has been carried out to assess the allergenicity of dominant pollen types from the atmosphere of nine districts of the state of Punjab, India. During the study period (2012–2014), 30 different kinds of pollens belonging to 17 families were recorded. Antigenic extract of thirteen pollen types were selected for skin prick tests (SPT). The allergenic pollens selected for the present study belong to families: Asteraceae, Amaranthaceae, Brassicaceae, Cannabaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Meliaceae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae and Xanthorrhoeaceae. Total 165 sensitized patients having diagnosed with bronchoprovocation test were selected for SPT. Diagnostic tests were performed in ENT department, Rajindra hospital Patiala, and SPT were done in the clinic of Dr. H.S. Bedi at Patiala. Antigenic reactivity (3+ to above) to various allergens varied from 2.4 to 9.09 %. Patients showed maximum allergenic sensitivity to Parthenium hystrophorus (9.09 %) followed by Morus alba (8.48 %), Amaranthus spinosus (7.87 %) and Ageratum sp. (6.06 %). Least reactivity was shown by Brassica compestris and Eucalyptus sp. (2.4 %).
... Les études aéropalynologiques existent depuis plusieurs années dans de nombreux pays européens [7,8] où différents types de capteurs ont été utilisés. En Afrique, elles ont été entreprises il y a seulement quelques décennies, notamment en Afrique du Sud [9], en Afrique du Nord [10] et en Afrique de l'Ouest : en Côte d'Ivoire [11] et au Nigéria [12]. D'autres études ont été effectuées en milieu marin, au large de l'Afrique de l'Ouest par Calleja et al., 1993, [13] où il a été observé que des masses polliniques sont transportées par les vents au-delà du continent. ...
Pollen analysis of the atmosphere on the Abomey-Calavi university campus in Benin.
We conducted palynological studies of the atmosphere on the campus of University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) from January to December 2013.We used a Durham device, based on the gravimetric method, to collect airborne pollen and spores. Microscopic analysis revealed the presence ofa variety of particles: there were 5053 pollen grains and 8412 spore grains (fungi and pteridophyta), with Poaceae alone accounting for 19.76% (999) of the pollen grains. We observed 21 pollen families with 39 geneses. Pollen grains were most abundant during November, December and January, during which months the long dry season occurs in Benin; pollen grains accounted for 15.77% of the particles observed in November,11.87% observed in December and 19.77% of those observed in January. The monthly variation in the number of pollen grains was linked to various climatic factors, mainly to wind speed and evapotranspiration, both of which are involved in the dispersal of the grains in the atmosphere.
Des études aéropalynologiques ont été menées sur le campus universitaire d’Abomey-Calavi (Bénin) de janvier à décembre 2013. L’appareil de Durham, basé sur la méthode gravimétrique a été utilisé pour capter les pollens et les spores. L’analyse microscopique des lames a mis en évidence la présence de différentes particules dont les grains de pollens au nombre de 5053 et les spores (champignons et ptéridophytes) au nombre de 8412. Les pollens sont répartis en 21 familles et 39 genres. Les Poaceae comptent à elles seules, 999 grains de pollens, soit 19,77 %. Les mois les plus riches en pollens sont janvier, novembre et décembre, des mois appartenant à la grande saison sèche au Bénin, avec respectivement 19,77 %, 15,77 % et 11,87 %. Cette variation mensuelle du nombre de pollens est liée à divers facteurs climatiques principalement la vitesse du vent et l’évapotranspiration qui interviennent dans la dispersion des pollens dans l’atmosphère.
