Comparison of pollen sampling with a Burkard Spore Trap and a Tauber Trap in a warm temperate climate

Aerobiological data have been widely used by many scientists, including tho se that study modern flora as well as those wishing to reconstruct past veg etational associations. Burkard (Hirst-type) volumetric spore traps are wid ely used instruments for studying airborne pollen, while Tauber traps are t ypically used to analyze pollen deposition. The present study compared the pollen collected by these two methods in Tulsa, Oklahoma a warm temperate a rea with year-round pollen. There was a strong correlation between the poll en influx from the Tauber traps and cumulative sum of average daily airborn e pollen concentrations recorded with the Burkard spore trap over the cours e of 12 months from 1 Feb 1997 through 1 Feb 1998. The correlation coeffici ent between all taxa over the 12 months was 0.914; while the correlation co efficient for the monthly totals was 0.972. The data showed that both metho ds reflected local anemophilous vegetation although variations occurred in the prevalence recorded by both samplers.