The atmosphere-land interface is data-rich yet overlooked for ecological research. Here we test hypotheses about which atmospheric phenomena favor release, transport and deposit of pine pollen. Pine pollen is a well-studied model system and seasonal contributor to bioaerosols, also defined as primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs). Here we captured pine pollen from multiple rain events over a ten-day interval prior to local pine pollen release at North Carolina’s Outer Banks. To reconstruct pollen from rain event’s source-sink path, we combined large meteorological datasets from 20+ weather stations with explicit atmospheric transport-dispersion modeling tools.
Results/Conclusions
Using this, we could identify altitudes for the transport paths of pollen-laden air parcels from nearest forests releasing pollen, i.e. 200, 100 and 40 km distances from sink on March 31, April 3 and April 12, respectively. In half of the rain events, pollen transport was by wind at altitudes 1000 m AGL below the cloud base before being scavenged by raindrops. In the other rain events, pine pollen travelled inside rain clouds. In summary, our preliminary findings are as follows: a) winds below cloud base transported pine pollen up to 103 km distances from source while b) rainclouds transported pine pollen for 102 km distances. A few pollen grains germinated after capture whether transported by wind or by rain clouds. Published lab simulation studies and historical precedent support these findings relevant to dispersal ecology, atmospheric biology and ecological data mining.