Extensive pollen immigration and no evidence of disrupted mating patterns or reproduction in a highly fragmented holm oak stand

Aims Forest fragmentation and reduced tree population densities can poten-tially have negative impacts on mating patterns,offspring genetic diversity and reproductive performance.the aim of the present study is to test these hypotheses comparing an extremely fragmented,low tree density(~0.02 trees/ha)holm oak(Quercus ilex l.)stand from Central spain with a nearby high tree density stand(~50 trees/ha).Methods We genotyped adult trees and seeds from the low-density stand(436 seeds from 15 families)and the high-density stand(404 seeds from 11 families)using nine microsatellite markers.With these data,we performed paternity analyses,determined pollen flow,mating patterns and pollen pool structure,and estimated progeny genetic diversity in both stands.We also studied seed set and production and performed a pollen supplementation experiment to determine whether reduced tree density has limited foreign pollen availability.Important Findings We have found extensive pollen immigration(>75%)into the low tree density stand and monte Carlo simulations revealed that pollen moves larger distances than expected from null models of random dispersal.mating patterns and differentiation of pollen pools were similar in the high-density stand and the low-density stand but we found higher inter-annual differentiation of pollen pools in the for-mer.Progeny genetic diversity and self-fertilization rates did not dif-fer between the low-density stand and the high-density stand.seed set rates were significantly lower in the low-density stand than in the high-density stand and experimental cross-pollen supplementation evidenced that foreign pollen availability is indeed a limiting factor in the former.However,seed crops did not differ between the low-density stand and the high-density stand,indicating that limitation of foreign pollen is not likely to be of great concern in terms of reduced seed production and potential recruitment.Poor forest regeneration due to other ecological and human factors is probably a more important threat for the persistence of fragmented and low tree density stands than reduced pollen flow and only extremely small and isolated tree populations would be expected to suffer severe loss of genetic diversity in the long term.

A demonstration project of Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases:Prediction of interactions between air pollution and allergen exposure—the Mobile Airways Sentinel NetworK-Impact of air POLLution on Asthma and Rhinitis approach

This review analyzes the state and recent progress in the field of information support for pollen allergy sufferers.For decades,information available for the patients and allergologists consisted of pollen counts,which are vital but insufficient.New technology paves the way to substantial increase in amount and diversity of the data.This paper reviews old and newly suggested methods to predict pollen and air pollutant concentrations in the air and proposes an allergy risk concept,which combines the pollen and pollution information and transforms it into a qualitative risk index.This new index is available in an app(Mobile Airways Sentinel NetworK-air)that was developed in the frame of the European Union grant Impact of Air POLLution on sleep,Asthma and Rhinitis(a project of European Institute of Innovation and Technology-Health).On-going transformation of the pollen allergy information support is based on new technological solutions for pollen and air quality monitoring and predictions.The new information-technology and artificial-intelligence-based solutions help to convert this information into easy-to-use services for both medical practitioners and allergy sufferers.