Temporal Analysis of the Relationship between Meteorological Factors and Pollen Abundance in Raleigh, North Carolina
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2018-12-10
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Abstract
Gareton, Julie. Masters of Environmental Assessment. Temporal Analysis of the Relationship between
Meteorological Factors and Pollen Abundance in Raleigh, North Carolina
Climate change affects both meteorological factors and plant processes. In order to observe climate and
pollen relationships, pollen counts are plotted against temperature, humidity (in the form of dew point
temperature), and precipitation in Raleigh, North Carolina from February 2, 1999 to September 4, 2018.
Linear regression tools in Microsoft Excel were used to analyze annual and seasonal data that had been
aggregated by month. The annual data revealed the strongest correlation between the increased
temperature in the area and pollen count, particularly in tree pollen species. Conversely, the seasonal
data for spring showed a stronger correlation between average precipitation and pollen count. The IPCC
has predicted that temperature and precipitation will both continue to rise and, based on historical
data, it is likely that the relationship between pollen and temperature, as supported by annual tree
pollen data, as well as the relationship between pollen and precipitation, as supported by weed and
grass seasonal pollen analysis, will increase the pollen counts in Raleigh. While a direct correlation
cannot be concluded definitively, the results indicate that temperature is related to tree pollen count
and precipitation is related to grass and weed pollen count.
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pollen, climate change, temperature, precipitation, dew point, North Carolina,
