Pollen Counting 1969-2016

L Bielory, J Jones

 

Rationale

High granularity of pollen counting sites is essential to document accurate data. We examined the fluctuations in the number and longevity of pollen counting sites in the United States over a 53-year period.

Methods

Locations and activity of pollen counting sites were collected from the records of the Pollen and Mold Committee of the Academy of Allergy and Immunology and the Aeroallergen Monitoring Network of the AAAAI from the years between 1963 and 2016.

Results

A total of 500 sites across 42 of the United States were recorded as active from 1963 - 2016. A single station never exceeded 26 years of total activity; average longevity was 4.3 years; 1971 was the most active year (n=132); 1988 was lowest station activity (n=18) stations . Average number of active stations was ~65. The most new (stations that were not reporting the previous year) stations became active in 1971, with 48 new stations reporting, while the most stations were lost (became inactive from the previous year) in 1972, when 67 stations became inactive. On average ~20 new stations became active per year, and 17 were lost. In general there was no correlation between number of new sites and number of sites lost.

Conclusions

Granularity of pollen counting sites has a direct impact on our ability to use pollen data in tandem with other measurements (temperature, humidity, etc). to assess the effects of macro and micro environmental changes on allergens and plants at large.