Relationship between Birch Pollen Counts and Meteorological Factors for 8 years in Sapporo

• Published in: Nippon Jibi Inkoka Gakkai Kaiho Vol. 106; no. 6; pp. 705 - 709
• Main Authors: Narita, Shin-ichirou, Asakura, Kohji, Shirasaki, Hideaki, Yamamoto, Tetsuo, Watanabe, Kazumasa, Kanaizumi, Etsuko, Ogasawara, Hideki, Konno, Nobuhiro, Kataura, Akikatsu, Satoh, Jun, Himi, Tetsuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Japan The Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc 2003
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Betula; birch pollen count; Forecasting - methods; Japan; Meteorological Concepts; meteorological factor; Pollen; prediction method; Seasons; Time Factors; Japan
• ISSN: 0030-6622; 1883-0854
• DOI: 10.3950/jibiinkoka.106.705

Occurrence of airborne pollen in Sapporo was studied for the 8 years between 1995 and 2002. Observations on pollen seasons of cedar. birch, grass, and mugwort are presented. There are wide year-to-year variations in quantities of birch pollens. Simple linear regression by the least squares method was used for studying correlations between annual quantities of birch pollen and the meteorological factors. A highly significant (P=0.00004) positive correlation was found between precipitation in February of the preceding year and annual birch pollen concentrations with the coefficient of determination. R2=0.950. These results suggest that atmospheric birch pollen counts can be predicted from the meteorological factor in the preceding year.