title: Plant Responses to Climate Change: The Case Study of Betulaceae and Poaceae Pollen Seasons (Northern Italy, Vignola, Emilia-Romagna).
abstract: Aerobiological data have especially demonstrated that there is correlation between climate warming and the pollination season of plants. This paper focuses on airborne pollen monitoring of Betulaceae and Poaceae, two of the main plant groups with anemophilous pollen and allergenic proprieties in Northern Italy. The aim is to investigate plant responses to temperature variations by considering long-term pollen series. The 15-year aerobiological analysis is reported from the monitoring station of Vignola (located near Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region) that had operated in the years 1990-2004 with a Hirst spore trap. The Yearly Pollen Index calculated for these two botanical families has shown contrasting trends in pollen production and release. These trends were well identifiable but fairly variable, depending on both meteorological variables and anthropogenic causes. Based on recent reference literature, we considered that some oscillations in pollen concentration could have been a main effect of temperature variability reflecting global warming. The duration of pollen seasons of Betulaceae and Poaceae, depending on the different species included in each family, has not unequivocally been determined. Phenological responses were particularly evident inAlnusand especially inCorylusas a general moving up of the end of pollination. The study shows that these trees can be affected by global warming more than other, more tolerant, plants. The research can be a contribution to the understanding of phenological plant responses to climate change and suggests that alder and hazelnut trees have to be taken into high consideration as sensible markers of plant responses to climate change.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Viale Caduti in Guerra, 127, 41121 Modena, Italy. annamaria.mercuri@unimore.it.
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mercuri
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Viale Caduti in Guerra, 127, 41121 Modena, Italy. paola.torri@unimore.it.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Torri
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Viale Caduti in Guerra, 127, 41121 Modena, Italy. rita.fornaciari@unimore.it.|Plant Physiology Lab, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Kennedy, 17/I, 42124 Reggio Emilia, Italy. rita.fornaciari@unimore.it.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fornaciari
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Viale Caduti in Guerra, 127, 41121 Modena, Italy. assunta.florenzano@unimore.it.
authors.forename: Assunta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Florenzano
keywords: Alnus; Betula; Corylus; aerobiology; global warming; long-term series; pollen; wind-pollinated plants