Abstract

Our present understanding of pollen dispersal by wind (anemophily) is quite limited. Due to the stochastic and complex nature of anemophily, modelling the dispersal patterns of the pollen and seeds of wind pollinated plants is not an easy task. The majority of the existing dispersal models are varied and have many conflicting predictions of pollen dispersal distances and concentrations from a source. These discrepancies between models reflect the lack of both short and long distance dispersal data, limiting the ability to seriously test the validity of these models. The main objective of this study was to measure ambient pollen concentrations of various tree and shrub species at both short and long distances from the source. A secondary objective was to measure the parameters involved in the dispersal process of anemophilous pollen and subsequently use these parameters and the empirical data collected to test the accuracy of three analytical mechanistic models of pollen and seed dispersal. The applications of such models are extensive; besides being of use to the allergy-suffering population, present-day issues such as climate change, pollen contamination in GMO crops, and landscape fragmentation raise concerns about whether plants will be able to adapt, disperse, and reproduce effectively in such rapidly changing environments.