PREVALENCE OF AIRBORNE POLLEN GRAINS AND FUNGAL SPORES IN A CITY OF THAR DESERT, INDIA

Abstract

Monitoring of bioaerosols i.e., pollen grains and fungal spores, was undertaken for two consecutive years in a city of Thar Desert- Bikaner, using Gravity Slide Method. A total of 32 different pollen taxa were identified with Annual Pollen Integral (API) of 890 pollen grains per sq. cm in the first year and 906 pollen grains per sq. cm in the second year. The pollen count of non-arboreal plants was much more than that of the arboreal plants. The most prominent annual average pollen percentage was credited to Poaceae (25.91%), followed by Chenopodiaceae/Amaranthaceae (17.57%), Papilionaceae (7.86%) and Cyperaceae (5.95%) among non-arboreal plants: and to Prosopis juliflora (14.84%) amongst arboreal taxa. Two peak seasons were observed in both the years i.e., February to April and August to October for both pollen grains as well as fungal spores. 32 types of airborne fungal spores were reported from the atmosphere of Bikaner during the study. A total number of 6717 fungal spores per sq. cm were counted in the first year and 7117 spores per sq. cm in the second year. The commonest fungal spores encountered were of the species of Cladosporium, followed by Alternaria and Curvularia with annual mean percentage of 24.95%, 23.02% and 11.53 respectively.