Abstract (eng)
In order to improve the understanding of spiderwebs as natural pollen trapping media, spiderweb and respective dust/soil surface samples were collected from two indoor and three outdoor locations in Vienna and Burgenland. Surrounding vegetation was determined qualitatively.
The following questions were approached: (1) Do pollen spectra received from spiderwebs depict the surrounding vegetation? (2) How similar are the compositions of pollen spectra from spiderweb and dust/soil surface samples of each location?
(1) Comparable levels of vegetation accordance were observed in spiderweb and floor samples for each location. Nevertheless, tendencies were recognized for indoor and outdoor locations, comprising higher rates of surrounding plant taxa in spiderweb than floor samples outdoor, whilst the opposite was detected for indoor samples. Further observations concerned increased amounts of spores in indoor spiderweb samples in contrast to their floor counterparts and the greater abundance of zoophile taxa in spiderweb samples.
(2) Divergence between pollen spectra from spiderweb and dust/surface soil samples was noticed. However, differences were mainly attributed to local accumulations of a single pollen type in spiderweb samples. Minor distinctions may be explained by spiderwebs dominantly filtering airborne particles in contrast to indoor dust samples comprising higher amounts of ruderal pollen carried there i.a. via footwear.
Therefore, it is assumed, that spiderweb and dust/soil surface samples are not interchangeable but should rather be considered two sides of the same coin.