Incidence of Airborne Biocomponents in Context to Meteorological Parameters Over Some Crop Fields

The present investigation was undertaken to understand the incidence of various biocomponents over jowar (Sorghum vulgare) field, wheat field, groundnut field and maize field. Environmental monitoring was carried out by operating continuous volumetric Tilak Air Sampler for 4 consecutive Rabi seasons, for the first time in this unexplored locality. Apart from dust particles and fungal bio-aerosols, remaining 5 biocomponents are reported in this paper which belonged to the group ‘Other types’, comprising of hypha fragments, insect scales (parts), pollen grains, trichomes (hairs) and unidentified fungal spores. From the various crop fields studied, these bio components contributed highest (15.8%) over wheat field and lowest (9.4%) over maize field to the total airspora. Airborne biocomponents obtained peak in the month of November over wheat field (17.8%) and groundnut field (16.6%), when there was a record of 22.5°C and 21.8°C mean temperature, 54.4% and 56.7% mean relative humidity and 10.4 mm and 14.5 mm rainfall respectively. Similar peak was obtained in the air over jowar field (11.6%) and maize field (11.3%) in the month of March, when there was a record of 30.6°C and 30.1°C mean temperature, 42.4% and 42.2% mean relative humidity and nil record of rainfall. Allergenic nature of hyphal fragments, insect scales and pollen grains causing allergy and allergenic ailments in human health hazards is also presented in this paper.