Responses in the start of Betula (birch) pollen seasons to recent changes in spring temperatures across Europe

Emberlin, Jean; Detandt, Monique; Gehrig, Regula; Jaeger, S.; Nolard, N.; Rantio-Lehtimäki, A.

doi:10.1007/s00484-002-0139-x

Cited by 191 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Trees like birch might also be influenced by this land use change. Some studies on the other hand have revealed that due to global warming (IPCC 2007) some pollen counts have increased (Emberlin et al 2002;Spieksma et al 2003;Williams 2005). However, these studies often encompass a long pollen set but do not discriminate between different time segments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Trends in prevalence of allergic rhinitis and correlation with pollen counts in Switzerland

Frei

Gassner²

2008

Int J Biometeorol

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In recent decades, a large number of epidemiological studies investigating the change of prevalence of hay fever showed an increase in the occurrence of this disease. However, other studies carried out in the 1990s yielded contradictory results. Many environmental factors have been hypothesized to contribute to the increasing hay fever rate, including both indoor and ambient air pollution, reduced exposure to microbial stimulation and changes in diets. However, the observed increase has not convincingly been explained by any of these factors and there is limited evidence of changes in exposure to these risk factors over time. Additionally, recent studies show that no further increase in asthma, hay fever and atopic sensitisation in adolescents and adults has been observed during the 1990s and the beginning of the new century. As the pattern of pollen counts has changed over the years, partly due to the global warming but also as a consequence of a change in the use of land, the changing prevalence of hay fever might partly be driven by this different pollen exposure. Epidemiological data for hay fever in Switzerland are available from 1926 until 2000 (with large gaps between 1926 and 1958 and 1958 to 1986) whereas pollen data are available from 1969 until the present. This allows an investigation as to whether these data are correlated provided the same time spans are compared. It would also be feasible to correlate the pollen data with meteorological data which, however, is not the subject of our investigation. Our study focuses on analyzing time series of pollen counts and of pollen season lengths in order to identify their trends, and to ascertain whether there is a relationship between these trends and the changes in the hay fever prevalence. It is shown in this paper that the pollen exposure has been decreasing in Basel since the beginning of the 1990s whereas the rate of the hay fever prevalence in Switzerland remained approximately unchanged in this period but with a slight tendency to decrease. In Locarno, most of the pollen species also show a decreasing trend, while in Zurich, the development is somewhat different as the pollen counts of most of the pollen types have been increasing. It is interesting, however, that some of the pollen counts of this station (grass, stinging nettle, mugwort and ragweed) have been decreasing in the period 1982--2007.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Trends in prevalence of allergic rhinitis and correlation with pollen counts in Switzerland

Frei

Gassner²

2008

Int J Biometeorol

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“…Several studies have reported a premature start of the pollen season [31, 32, 33], often in accordance with the phenological changes observed [34]. A comprehensive analysis of the pollen data of the European Aeroallergen Network (1974–2001/2) revealed a generally earlier start and peak of pollen release, especially for early flowering species (hazel, alder, birch).…”

Section: Phenology – the Timings Of Flowering And Pollen Release Are mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, the start of the pollen season, similar to the start of flowering, is particularly sensitive to the temperature of the previous months. Thus, temperature causing chilling and forcing are the most important variables to include in the different models of the start of the pollen season (temperature averages, growing degree days, physiological-based modes) [33, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47]. Variations in the commencement of the grass pollen season show a close relationship to cumulative temperatures and to rainfall in May and June [40].…”

Section: Phenology – the Timings Of Flowering And Pollen Release Are mentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Pollen on Human Health: More Than Allergen Carriers?

Traidl‐Hoffmann

Kasche

Menzel

et al. 2003

Int Arch Allergy Immunol

141

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The transfer of pollen from floral anther to recipient stigma is the critical reproductive event among higher plants – this is the botanical view of pollen. Proteins and glycoproteins from pollen can function as allergens, environmental molecules interacting with the human immune system to elicit an allergic response in susceptible individuals – this is how allergists and immunologists see pollen grains. Between 10 and 25% of the population now have symptoms of hay fever or allergic asthma and the incidence has more than doubled in the past three decades while the reason(s) for this increment are only hypothetical, but there is a multitude of them. Despite our natural focus on this impact of pollen on human health, pollen have to be considered in a larger context. First of all, to evaluate the bioavailability of allergens from pollen, we have to understand their function and their influence factors. Furthermore, pollen grains are not only releasing proteins eliciting specific immune responses, but they also liberate bioactive lipid mediators and this much more rapidly. And last but not least, recent observations indicate, that pollen do not only induce allergy and thus have a much broader impact on human health. This review is an attempt to favour this holistic view of pollen and their impact on human health.

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“…The onset of plant phenological phases in spring at high latitude regions like Fennoscandia depends strongly on the spring temperature regime (e.g., Heide 1993;Wielgolaski 1999;Chmielewski and Rötzer 2001;Emberlin et al 2002;Karlsson et al 2003). However, one should be aware of the fact that the dependency of the SOS on temperature varies between species (Wielgolaski 1999;Schaber and Badeck 2003;Chmielewski et al 2005), between ages of woody plants, and between development stages (Granier et al 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability of the start of the growing season in Fennoscandia, 1982–2002

et al. 2007

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Fennoscandia is characterized by a large degree of climatic diversity. Vegetation phenology may respond differently to climate change according to the climatic gradients within the region. To map the annual and spatial variability of the start of the growing season (SOS) in Fennoscandia, the twice-monthly GIMMS-NDVI satellite dataset was used. The data set has an 8 x 8 km(2) spatial resolution and covers the period from 1982 to 2002. The mapping was done by applying pixel-specific threshold values to the NDVI data. These threshold values were determined form surface phenology data on birch (Betula sp.). Then, we produced NDVI based maps of SOS for each of the 21 years. Finally, the time differences between the SOS and the last day of snow cover, as well as dates of passing different temperatures, were analyzed for 21 meteorological stations. The analyses showed that 1985 was the most extreme year in terms of late SOS. In terms of early SOS, the year 1990 was by far the most extreme. Locally, the SOS has an average range of 1 month between the earliest and latest recorded SOS, with a trend towards a bigger range in the oceanic parts. The results indicate that a 1 degrees C increase in spring temperatures in general corresponds to an advancement of 5-6 days in SOS. However, there is a clear trend according to the degree of oceanity, with a 1 degrees C increase in the most oceanic parts corresponding roughly to 7-9 days earlier SOS, compared to less than 5 days earlier in the continental parts.

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Responses in the start of Betula (birch) pollen seasons to recent changes in spring temperatures across Europe

Cited by 191 publications

References 10 publications

Trends in prevalence of allergic rhinitis and correlation with pollen counts in Switzerland

Trends in prevalence of allergic rhinitis and correlation with pollen counts in Switzerland

Impact of Pollen on Human Health: More Than Allergen Carriers?

Variability of the start of the growing season in Fennoscandia, 1982–2002

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