Pollen calendars and maps of allergenic pollen in North America

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Abstract

Pollen is a common allergen that causes significant health and financial impacts on up to a third of the population of the USA. Knowledge of the main pollen season can improve diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases. Our objective in this study is to provide clear, quantitative visualizations of pollen data and make information accessible to many disciplines, in particular to allergy sufferers and those in the health field. We use data from 31 National Allergy Bureau (NAB) pollen stations in the continental USA and Canada from 2003 to 2017 to produce pollen calendars. We present pollen season metrics relevant to health and describe main pollen season start and end dates, durations, and annual pollen integrals for specific pollen taxa. In most locations, a small number of taxa constitute the bulk of the total pollen concentration. Start dates for tree and grass pollen season depend strongly on latitude, with earlier start dates at lower latitudes. Season duration is correlated with the start dates, such that locations with earlier start dates have a longer season. NAB pollen data have limited spatiotemporal coverage. Increased spatiotemporal monitoring will improve analysis and understanding of factors that govern airborne pollen concentrations.

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Clinical practice. Allergic rhinitis.

Lisa M Wheatley, Alkis Togias (2015)

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Cities as harbingers of climate change: common ragweed, urbanization, and public health.

Lewis H. Ziska, Dennis E. Gebhard, David A Frenz … (2003)

Although controlled laboratory experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the sensitivity of allergenic pollen production to future climatic change (ie, increased CO(2) and temperature), no in situ data are available. The purpose of this investigation was to assess, under realistic conditions, the impact of climatic change on pollen production of common ragweed, a ubiquitous weed occurring in disturbed sites and the principal source of pollen associated with seasonal allergenic rhinitis. We used an existing temperature/CO(2) gradient between urban and rural areas to examine the quantitative and qualitative aspects of ragweed growth and pollen production. For 2000 and 2001, average daily (24-hour) values of CO(2) concentration and air temperature within an urban environment were 30% to 31% and 1.8 degrees to 2.0 degrees C (3.4 degrees to 3.6 degrees F) higher than those at a rural site. This result is consistent with most global change scenarios. Ragweed grew faster, flowered earlier, and produced significantly greater above-ground biomass and ragweed pollen at urban locations than at rural locations. Here we show that 2 aspects of future global environmental change, air temperature and atmospheric CO(2), are already significantly higher in urban relative to rural areas. In general, we show that regional urbanization-induced temperature/CO(2) increases similar to those associated with projected global climatic change might already have public health consequences; we suggest that urbanization, per se, might provide a low-cost alternative to current experimental methods evaluating plant responses to climate change.

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Recent warming by latitude associated with increased length of ragweed pollen season in central North America.

L. Ziska, K. Knowlton, C. Rogers … (2011)

A fundamental aspect of climate change is the potential shifts in flowering phenology and pollen initiation associated with milder winters and warmer seasonal air temperature. Earlier floral anthesis has been suggested, in turn, to have a role in human disease by increasing time of exposure to pollen that causes allergic rhinitis and related asthma. However, earlier floral initiation does not necessarily alter the temporal duration of the pollen season, and, to date, no consistent continental trend in pollen season length has been demonstrated. Here we report that duration of the ragweed (Ambrosia spp.) pollen season has been increasing in recent decades as a function of latitude in North America. Latitudinal effects on increasing season length were associated primarily with a delay in first frost of the fall season and lengthening of the frost free period. Overall, these data indicate a significant increase in the length of the ragweed pollen season by as much as 13-27 d at latitudes above ~44°N since 1995. This is consistent with recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections regarding enhanced warming as a function of latitude. If similar warming trends accompany long-term climate change, greater exposure times to seasonal allergens may occur with subsequent effects on public health.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Jeremy J. Hess:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0440-2459

001-206-221-4059 , jjhess@uw.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Aerobiologia (Bologna)

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Aerobiologia (Bologna)

Title: Aerobiologia

Publisher: Springer Netherlands (Dordrecht )

ISSN (Print): 0393-5965

Publication date (Electronic): 17 July 2019

Publication date PMC-release: 17 July 2019

Publication date (Print): 2019

Volume: 35

Issue: 4

Pages: 613-633

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.34477.33, ISNI 0000000122986657, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, College of the Environment, , University of Washington, ; Seattle, WA USA

[2 ]GRID grid.34477.33, ISNI 0000000122986657, Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, , University of Washington, ; 4225 Roosevelt Way NE #100, Suite 2330, Box 354695, Seattle, WA 98105 USA

[3 ]GRID grid.34477.33, ISNI 0000000122986657, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, , University of Washington, ; Seattle, WA USA

[4 ]GRID grid.34477.33, ISNI 0000000122986657, Department of Global Health, Schools of Medicine and Public Health, , University of Washington, ; Seattle, WA USA

Author information

Jeremy J. Hess http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0440-2459

Article

Publisher ID: 9601

DOI: 10.1007/s10453-019-09601-2

PMC ID: 6934246

PubMed ID: 31929678

SO-VID: b5142e17-9817-4497-b93d-0b9aca21d78d

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

History

Date received : 24 July 2018

Date accepted : 9 July 2019

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000104, National Aeronautics and Space Administration;

Award ID: 15-HAQST15-0025

Award Recipient : Jeremy J. Hess

Funded by: Tamaki Foundation

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Ecology

Keywords: allergy,aeroallergens,quercus,start date,duration,latitude

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Ecology

Keywords: allergy, aeroallergens, quercus, start date, duration, latitude

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Pollen calendars and maps of allergenic pollen in North America

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Abstract

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Most cited references 50

Clinical practice. Allergic rhinitis.

Cities as harbingers of climate change: common ragweed, urbanization, and public health.

Recent warming by latitude associated with increased length of ragweed pollen season in central North America.

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Cited by 28

Most referenced authors 718