By Alan Mozes
HealthDay reporter
THURSDAY, February 25, 2021 (HealthDay News) – If you suffer from the itchy, sneezing, and wheezing effects of seasonal allergies, you are probably painfully aware that the pollen season starts earlier and lasts longer than ever.
It’s a result of climate change, and new research from Germany offers an explanation for this prolonged sneezing season: pollen is on the move, and early-flowering spores are now blowing over traditional areas and in regions where these types of pollen usually bloom later, if at all.
“In the long term – in view of climate change and the changing species distribution – we have to take into account that ‘new’ pollen species are transported to us more frequently,” said study author Ye Yuan from the Technical University of Munich. He holds a professorship for ecoclimatology.
“The transportation of pollen has important implications for the length, timing and severity of the allergenic pollen season,” Yuan said.
Pollen has the ability to travel hundreds of kilometers from its original flowering locale, emphasized Yuan and his colleagues. To find out how often pollen is transported, they carried out two analyzes.
The first verified information was collected between 1987 and 2017 at six atmospheric data collection stations throughout the state of Bavaria. The aim was to measure changes at the beginning of the flowering and pollen season.
This study found that some species of pollen – such as those from hazel and / or alder trees – produced up to two days earlier each year. Birch and ash trees started spreading their pollen on average half a day earlier.
That fits in with what scientists already know about one of the most obvious effects of climate change: when temperatures rise, flowers tend to bloom earlier.
At warmer temperatures, the carbon dioxide content also increases, which promotes pollen formation.
That dynamic has added up to 20 days to the pollen season over the past three decades, the Yuan team said.
Similar observations were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this month.
This study, conducted by the University of Utah, found that pollen levels in the US and Canada had increased 21% since 1990 and the length of the pollen season had increased by three weeks.
continuation
A second analysis by the Yuan team looked at data collected at three pollen stations in Bavaria between 2005 and 2015 to determine pollen transport patterns.
Any species of pollen found before local bloom began likely came from far away, although the researchers didn’t calculate how far a particular species had traveled. Species that were not considered native were also characterized as transported pollen.
Almost two thirds of the pollen collected were ultimately considered not to be indigenous. The researchers concluded that pollen transport is a fairly common phenomenon in the preseason.
Although the study only focused on regions in Germany, Yuan said similar results would likely be seen around the world.
He added that it is “very likely” that the pollen trends observed by his team will continue, “as climate change, including rising temperatures and rising CO2 levels, is a consistent contributor to pollen season and pollen transport”.
The research was published in Frontiers in Allergy on Feb.25.
Plant physiologist Lewis Ziska of Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center in New York City reviewed the results and said they added “a new and interesting dimension” to how climate change could affect the pollen season.
“As climate change [and] When the weather gets more extreme, additional pre-season pollen can become a very important aspect of pollen exposure and health consequences, “Ziska said.” We need to investigate how similar events can affect pollen exposure in the United States. “
More information
Learn more about climate change and allergies at the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
SOURCES: Ye Yuan, MSc, Professor of Ecoclimatology, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany; Lewis Ziska, PhD, Plant Physiologist and Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Irving Medical Center, Columbia University, New York City; Frontiers in Allergy, February 25, 2021
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