Abstract
Climate change will affect the growth of plants and may also influence the production of pollen. The important factors influencing climate change are increased CO2 concentrations, drought and air pollution. Common ragweed pollen is known to be strongly allergenic, thereby affecting human health. In this study, common ragweed plants were grown over an entire vegetation period under conditions of twice the ambient level of CO2 (700 ppm) and ozone (80 ppm), respectively. Furthermore, the effect of soil drought combined with different a:12 levels was investigated. Scanning electron microscopy showed no change in surface morphology and size of CO2- and drought-treated pollen. Regarding morphological parameters, elevated CO2 resulted in an increased length of the stem and the main inflorescence and higher pollen yields, whereas drought reduced the stem and inflorescence lengths and resulted in a lower pollen yield, a result that was mitigated by elevated CO2. Twice the ambient level of ozone tends to result in a reduced pollen yield. However, this was not statistically significant. These findings support the idea that the conditions of climate change will influence the development of common ragweed pollen, thereby affecting public health.