The U2电竞体育平台 produces the 花粉预报 for the whole of the UK in conjunction with the Met Office. 为什么U2电竞体育会得可怕的花粉热? 贝弗利·亚当斯-格鲁姆博士, Chief Palynologist (pollen specialist) 和 花粉预报er at the 科学与环境学院 explains why we get hay fever 和 what we can do to monitor pollen.
Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy 和 Dopey – this is how you feel when you’ve got an attack of hay fever. Happy - when you haven’t got hay fever 和, if you have it bad, you may need to see the Doc.
花粉热可不是闹着玩的, 虽然, 使人彻底衰弱并降低生活质量, 到处都带着酸, 红眼睛可能会让你害羞. Approximately one fifth of the UK population are affected by hay fever, with more than three million affected by allergen-triggered asthma. The main culprits are pollen 和 fungal spores but the typical symptoms of sneezing, 流鼻涕, 眼睛和喉咙发痒也可能是由许多其他因素引起的, 如室内尘螨粪便, 宠物皮毛和皮屑, 香烟烟雾, 香薰蜡烛, 香水, 打印机墨水和蟑螂.
花粉过敏原实际上是嵌入在谷物中的蛋白质. 当它们撞到鼻子里的肥大细胞时, 它们在敏感个体中触发组胺的释放. Histamine is there to ward off invaders 和 its release causes itching, 肿胀, sneezing 和 mucous production – all those annoying symptoms which combine to make you feel like most of the seven dwarves rolled into one!
Only a few pollen types typically trigger hay fever because to get up a sufferer’s nose the pollen must be produced in high quantities 和 be able to get airborne easily. 在英国，草花粉是最常见的花粉热诱因, 影响了95%的花粉热患者. 其次是桦树花粉, 影响大约25%的患者, Oak紧随其后, 桤木, Hazel 和 a few others (no wonder Sneezy was snuffling – he lived in a forest surrounded by them!),这些, 非常广泛的, 植物靠风传粉，有小, 容易通过空气传播的轻花粉. The flowers are indistinct on these plants – usually arranged on catkins dangling down, 有时被称为“羊尾巴”.
Most flowers are pollinated by insects 和 have pollen that is textured 和 often sticky so that it can easily cling to the insects’ bodies 和 be distributed from flower to flower. 昆虫授粉的花粉通常很重, produced in much lower quantities than wind-pollinated types 和 rarely becomes airborne. Many people suspect that oil-seed rape pollen causes their hay fever because they notice huge fields of bright yellow flowers. In fact it is usually birch or oak pollen that is causing their symptoms, 它们同时发生，但并不都很明显.
通过显微镜收集的草花粉粒
Pollen seasons are variable 和 therefore the production of pollen forecasts is important to enable sufferers to be prepared for the season. The amount of pollen produced 和 dispersed in any one season depends on a number of weather 和 climate variables, 包括季前赛和季前赛. 例如, 一个寒冷的, dry spring will reduce the amount of grass pollen produced 和 also cause a late season onset, 当一个温暖的, wet spring will encourage high grass pollen production 和 an earlier onset. If we have high pollen production coupled with warm weather in-season, then pollen counts can be very high 和 hay fever sufferers will be very Sneezy 和 extremely Grumpy. Very wet summers lead to Happy hay fever sufferers since the pollen struggles to get airborne.
Current research is looking at ways of producing more detailed forecasts 和 real-time pollen monitoring:
详细预测:直到最近, grass pollen types (family or species) could not be separated from one another during pollen monitoring using microscopy because they are so morphologically similar. 然而, new DNA techniques are able to analyse the pollen in the air 和 determine when specific grass types are in season. Work is also ongoing to produce models for highly detailed pollen forecasts, 这是目前英国还没有的. This is all very useful because the type of grass to which individual sufferers are affected can vary substantially. Forecasting according to grass type allows sufferers to get to know which ones they are affected by. 类似的工作也正在对其他花粉类型进行, 比如橡树和一种叫做Alternaria的真菌孢子过敏原.
Real-time pollen monitoring means 花粉粒 are detected 和 counted by a machine connected to the internet 和 the data sent immediately out to the public. There are now several laser detection machines that are being trialled by scientists at the U2电竞体育平台.
花粉热和哮喘患者可以关注花粉预报, 也被称为花粉计数, 找出哪些花粉类型是当季的或即将出现的.
All of the UK’s pollen forecasts come from the U2电竞体育平台, 与英国气象局合作, 和 are produced by experts in the School of Science 和 Environment. 更多关于特定过敏原的信息可以在U2电竞体育的 花粉预测页面
贝弗利·亚当斯-格鲁姆博士 工作 国家花粉和空气学研究单位 in the 科学与环境学院 to monitor 和 provide the 花粉预报 英国. If you are interested in the science behind the pollen forecast you may be interested in our 科学学位. U2电竞体育还提供参观花粉实验室作为U2电竞体育的一部分 U2电竞体育.
All views expressed in this blog are the Academic’s own 和 do not represent the views, policies or opinions of the U2电竞体育平台 or any of its partners.