It’s that time of the year! If you suffer from seasonal allergies you’re probably really feeling it right now! We’ve been dry the last few days and will continue to be for Mother’s Day weekend, so that will enhance higher pollen counts as well.
We’ve added Hickory into the mix now for current pollens, along with mulberry and the infamous grass pollens. That can be really impactful if you’re doing yard work or cutting the grass this weekend.
A recent study published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences in the United States of America strongly suggested anthropological climate change (climate change caused by humans) is making allergy season worse and longer. The study observed pollen trends from 1990 to 2018 using 60 stations across North America that are maintained by the National Allergy Bureau. While the study looked at both the spring and fall pollen seasons, most of the significant data comes from the spring season. Tree pollen showed the largest increases both in the spring season and annually. One of the biggest and clearest takeaways is the lengthening and earlier start of pollen season across the United States. This study shows pollen season is now starting 19 days earlier than it did in the 1980s, and only ending 8 days sooner. That means not only does pollen season start earlier, but it’s also lasting longer. After doing some statistical analysis on all the data they collected, the researchers show that seasonal shift is about 50% related to climate change. It would be impossible to prove 100%, so 50% is actually a pretty high indicator that the changing climate is significantly linked to the shifting pollen season. This study also shows pollen concentrations have increased by 21%. That was part one of this research; part two was trying to understand if this was caused by climate change. “Our results indicate that human-caused climate change has already worsened North American pollen seasons, and climate-driven pollen trends are likely to further exacerbate respiratory health impacts in coming decades.”
The second part of this study is a little harder to prove. There was only about an 8% connection between the changing climate and the pollen concentration changing. It is actually very difficult to point to climate change as the definitive cause for anything we are seeing now because there are so many factors influencing our environment. The author of this study explained, though, why pollen trends are a little bit easier to connect to climate change. He said, “both elevated temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations have been found to increase pollen production.” That’s what they mean when they’re talking about climate change here – elevated temperature (warmer air) and elevated carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. In other studies referenced by this author, that connection between warmer air and more CO2 has already proven to increase pollen concentrations. In this study, though, the researchers took that a step further and said, “while an impact of CO2 concentrations can be detected, consistent with experimental greenhouse studies, temperature appears to be a much stronger driver of pollen variability in space and time at continental scales.” There is much more work to be done in studying pollen, specifically how rising pollen concentrations and a longer season will impact us. We need to know more about the health implications and what that means for the environment around us. A new, related study out of the University of Michigan was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
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