• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

For the allergy patient who needs to know the situation about the extent of pollen risk, the National Institute of Meteorological Sciences developed a pollen forecasting system based on the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling (CMAQ). In the old system, pollen emission from the oak was estimated just based on the airborne concentration and meteorology factors, resulted in high uncertainty. For improving the quality of current pollen forecasting system, therefore the estimation of pollen emission is now corrected based on the observation of pollen emission at the oak forest to better reflect the real emission pattern. In this study, the performance of the previous (NIMS2014) and current (NIMS2016) model system was compared using observed oak pollen concentration. Daily pollen concentrations and emissions were simulated in pollen season 2016 and accuracy of onset and end of pollen season were evaluated. In the NIMS2014 model, pollen season was longer than actual pollen season; The simulated pollen season started 6 days earlier and finished 13.25 days later than the actual pollen season. The NIMS2016 model, however, the simulated pollen season started only 1.83 days later, and finished 0.25 days later than the actual pollen season, showing the improvement to predict the temporal range of pollen events. Also, the NIMS2016 model shows better performance for the prediction of pollen concentration, while there is a still large uncertainty to capture the maximum pollen concentration at the target site. Continuous efforts to correct these problems will be required in the future.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2013

The concentration of airborne pollen is related to meteorological parameters. The main purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between airborne pollen and meteorological parameters in Ulsan based on sampling from 2010 to 2011. The primary factors of interest were differences in the pollen scattering start date, end date, and peak date, and the fluctuations in pollen concentration. The meteorological parameters that affected the start and peak dates of the pollen season were as follows. For Pinus and Alnus, the dates were correlated with sunshine and an increase in temperature, whereas for Quercus, the dates were correlated with increasing temperature. During the pollen season, Alnus peaked when the temperature was highest and Pinus peaked when the relative humidity was lowest. The concentration of airborne pollen was correlated with meteorological parameters during the sampling period as follows: Pinus, Alnus, and Humulus pollen concentrations were positively correlated with increasing temperature and negatively correlated with rainfall and relative humidity; Humulus pollen concentration was positively correlated with sunshine; and Quercus and Humulus pollen concentrations were positively correlated with wind speed.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.155-161
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• 1977

Pollinosis usually caused by the airborne pollen grains, is an allergical disease which causes snivel and sneeze. The author has studied on airborne pollen grains collected at Chong-ro district in Seoul about 15m from April 1975 to March 1976. The obtained grains were 4 spp. of Gymnospermae, 19 spp. of Dicotyledoneae and 10 spp. of Monocotyledoneae. The tree season ranged from March to June, Alnus, Pinus and Acer were prevalent. The grass season ranged from May to October, Gramineae were prevalent. The weed season ranged from August, Artemisia were prevalent and ragweed was found.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.780-788
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• 2013

This study attempted to determine important meteorological parameters related to airborne pollen concentrations in urban areas. Hourly pollen measurement data were prepared from a regular sampling with a volumetric Burkard spore trap at a site in the Ulsan city, during the spring season (March~May) of 2011. Results showed that the daily mean and maximum concentrations for total pollen counts during the spring season were statistically significantly correlated with both air temperature and wind speed; daily mean pollen concentration was the most highly related to daily maximum temperature (r=0.567, p<0.001). It was also identified that pollen concentration has a stronger relationship with wind speed at the rural site than at the urban one, which confirms that strong wind conditions over the pollen sources area can be favorable for pollen dispersal, resulting in increases in airborne pollen concentrations downwind. From the results of an oak-pollen episode analysis, it was found that there was a significant relationship between hourly variation of oak pollen concentrations and dynamic meteorological factors, such as wind and mixing height (representing the boundary layer depth); especially, a strong southwestern wind and elevated mixing height was associated with high nocturnal concentrations of oak pollen. This study suggests that temperature, wind, and mixing height can be important considerations in explaining the pollen concentration variations. Additional examination of complex interactions of multiple meteorological parameters affecting pollen behavior should be carried out in order to better understand and predict the temporal and spatial pollen distribution in urban areas.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.355-361
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• 2008

Pollen is very important causing factor for allergy such as allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis, and asthma, and pollen allergy has a remarkable clinical impact all over Korea. The main pollination period covers about half the year, from spring to autumn, and the distribution of airborne pollen taxa of allergological interest is related to pollen season dynamics. Korean academy of pediatric allergy and respiratory diseases (KAPARD) has evaluated the pollen characteristics and nationwide pollen count for over 10 years since 1997. Airborne particles carrying allergens were collected daily from nationwide 8 stations (Seoul, Guri, Cheongju, Daegu, Kwangju, Busan, Kangneung, and Jeju) by using 7 days-Burkard sampler (Burkard Manufacturing Co Ltd, Hertfordshire, UK) in South Korea (July 1, 1997-June 30, 2007). They were counted and recorded along with the meteorological factors daily. Tree pollen is a major airborne allergen in spring, grass is most common in summer, and weed pollen is major pollen in autumn in Korea. There has two peak seasons for pollen allergy, as summer and autumn. There is some evidence suggesting that the prevalence of allergic diseases in Korea has been on the increase in the past decade. However, recent findings of the phase I and II studies of the international Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) study showed the absence of increases or little changes in prevalence of asthma symptoms and diagnosis rates in Korea, whereas the prevalence of allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis were increased. We reported the evidence that sensitization rate to weed pollen has been increased yearly since 1997 in childhood. Climate change and air pollution must be the major causing factors for the increase of pollen counts and sensitization rate to pollen. Climate change makes the plants earlier pollination and persisting pollination longer. In conclusion, data on pollen count and structure in the last few years, the pathogenetic role of pollen and the interaction between pollen and air pollutants with climate change gave new insights into the mechanism of respiratory allergic diseases in Korea.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2015

Although airborne pollen is invisible to the eye, it has been known as a major source to respiratory allergic reactions. For this reason, airborne pollen is monitoring in many countries to predict pollen concentration based on locality and season. However, the morphological characteristics of airborne pollen and their potential tendency as an allergen are still obscure. In the present study, we selected 52 airborne pollen samples based on previously reported data and investigated their detail pollen characteristics using LM and SEM. Major airborne pollen in Korea has sorted in 19 families (most angiosperms except four gymnosperm families), and all pollen grains are small to medium in size ($P=17.34-49.86{\mu}m$) apart from the bisaccate pollen grains of Pinaceae ($P=46.49-106.20{\mu}m$). The aperture number and shape vary from sulcate to polyporate. While the inaperture pollen has found only in gymnosperm (Cupressaceae and Taxaceae), triporate or polyporate is common pollen type in angiosperm. The sexine ornamentations could divide into several types, but the most sculpturing types are inconspicuous like psilate, rugulate and granulate. Reticulate pollen grains as a semitectum have occurred the species of genera Platanus and Fraxinus only. To estimate the possible relationships between pollen features and allergen, the results are discussed in botanical context.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy and variability of the oak pollen concentrations over the Seoul metropolitan region (SMR) simulated by the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ)-based pollen dispersion model, which is the CMAQ-pollen model integrated with the improved oak pollen emission model(PEM-oak). The PEM-oak model developed is based on hourly emission flux parameterization that includes the effects of plant-specific release, meteorological adjustment, and diurnal variations of oak pollen concentrations. A 33 day-run for oak pollen simulation was conducted by the CMAQ-pollen model with a 3 km spatial resolution for the SMR during the 2014 spring pollen season. Modeled concentrations were evaluated against the hourly measurements at three Burkard sampling sites. Temporal variations of oak concentrations were largely well represented by the model, but the quantitative difference between simulations and measurements was found to be significant in some periods. The model results also showed that large variations in oak pollen concentrations existed in time and space and high concentrations in the SMR were closely associated with the regional transport under strong wind condition. This study showed the effective application of the CMAQ-pollen modeling system to simulate oak pollen concentration in the SMR. Our results could be helpful in providing information on allergenic pollen exposure. Further efforts are needed to further understand the oak pollen release characteristics such as interannual variation of the oak pollen productivity and its spatio-temporal flowering timing.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.191-198
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• 2013

Cryptomeria japonica pollen is the most common pollen, which are scattering during each spring season in Japan. Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) pollinosis is one of seasonal allergic rhinitis that mainly occurs in Japan. In addition, long range transportation of Yellow Sand from the East Asian continent was also found during the pollen scattering seasons in Japan. Therefore, the interaction or impact between pollen and Yellow Sand should be concerned. In this study, our objective was to investigate the airborne behaviour of Cryptomeria japonica pollen grains and its size-segregated allergenic (Cry j 1) particles as the airborne tracer of Cryptomeria japonica pollen during the Yellow Sand events. Airborne Cryptomeria japonica pollen grains and its size-segregated allergenic particles were collected at roadside of urban residential zones of Saitama city during the pollination periods from February to March in two year investigation of 2009 and 2010. The overlap of Yellow Sand events and dispersal peak of pollen grains was observed. According to the Meteorological data, we found that the peaks of airborne pollen grains appeared under higher wind speed and temperature than the previous day. It was thought that Yellow Sand events and airborne pollen counts were related to wind speed. From the investigation of the airborne behavior of the size-segregated allergen particles by determining Cry j 1 with Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), the higher concentrations of the allergenic Cry j 1 were detected in particle size equal to or less than $1.1{\mu}m$($PM_{1.1}$) than other particle sizes during Yellow Sand events, especially in the rainy day. We conclude that rainwater trapping Yellow Sand is one of the important factors that affect the release of allergenic pollen species of Cry j 1. Therefore, it is very important to clarify the relationships between Cryptomeria japonica pollen allergenic species and chemical contents of the Yellow Sand particles in further studies.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.221-233
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• 2015

Pollen is closely related to health issues such as allergenic rhinitis and asthma as well as intensifying atopic syndrome. Information on current and future spatio-temporal distribution of allergenic pollen is needed to address such issues. In this study, the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling (CMAQ) was utilized as a base modeling system to forecast pollen dispersal from oak trees. Pollen emission is one of the most important parts in the dispersal modeling system. Areal emission factor was determined from gridded areal fraction of oak trees, which was produced by the analysis of the tree type maps (1:5000) obtained from the Korea Forest Service. Daily total pollen production was estimated by a robust multiple regression model of weather conditions and pollen concentration. Hourly emission factor was determined from wind speed and friction velocity. Hourly pollen emission was then calculated by multiplying areal emission factor, daily total pollen production, and hourly emission factor. Forecast data from the KMA UM LDAPS (Korea Meteorological Administration Unified Model Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System) was utilized as input. For the verification of the model, daily observed pollen concentration from 12 sites in Korea during the pollen season of 2014. Although the model showed a tendency of over-estimation in terms of the seasonal and daily mean concentrations, overall concentration was similar to the observation. Comparison at the hourly output showed distinctive delay of the peak hours by the model at the 'Pocheon' site. It was speculated that the constant release of hourly number of pollen in the modeling framework caused the delay.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.150-150
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• 2022

Plant reproduction associated with crop yields is highly vulnerable to global climate change components such as high and cold temperatures. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of season-high exposure to temperature treatments in pollen morphology on Adzuki bean (V. angularis) and Mung bean (V. radiate). V. angularis and V. radiata were treated at high temperatures in the high temperature gradient greenhouse designed to cause temperature deviation. The pollen shapes treated at high temperature were compared by an electron scanning microscope. As a result, it was confirmed that the number of abnormal pollens morphology at high temperature was the least in V. radiata, and V. angularis was vulnerable to high temperatures. Also, it was found that the number of abnormal pollen morphology atT4 (Con +5~6℃) varied according to the cultivars of V. angularis. Therefore, the differences in Vigna species or cultivars with thermo-tolerance in pollen morphology to high temperature are projected to occur in the changeable future climate.