A new South African Pollen Network (SAPNET)

Abstract

For the last few decades, pollen counts in South Africa have been available only for Cape Town. There has been little monitoring of the pollen in the rest of the country and, for some South African cities, there are no published data at all. In order to address this deficit, a national pollen-monitoring project for South Africa was established in August 2019 under the direction of the Allergy and Immunology Unit at the University of Cape Town Lung Institute. Burkard volumetric spore traps were positioned on rooftops in six of the nine provinces of South Africa. As a result, regional pollen counts, updated weekly, are available for allergists and all healthcare professionals who treat allergy (see http://www.pollencount.co.za/). The preliminary findings presented in this article highlight the different seasons and pollen spectra observed from each sampling site as a consequence of substantial variation in biomes and climates between the sites.