47 annual records of allergenic fungi spore: predictive models from the NW Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

An analysis was carried out of the atmospheric representivity of Cladosporium and Alternaria spores in the north-western Iberian Peninsula, registering mean annual concentrations in excess of 300,000 spores/m(3). During the main sporulation period, the highest average daily concentrations corresponded to Cladosporium herbarum type (1,197 spores/m(3)) while the highest daily value was 7,556 spores/m(3) (Cladosporium cladosporioides type). Alternaria only represents between 0.1-1% of the total spores identified. In these spore types, the intraday variation was more acute inland than along the coastline due to oceanic influence. In the predictive models proposed that use the meteorological parameters with which a higher correlation was obtained (mean and maximum temperature) as predictive variables, it was seen that the predicted values did not reveal any significant differences as compared to those observed in 2006, data that was only used for verification purposes.