How does the Pollen Warning Service Tyrol work?

Our activities have two core parts: Firstly, our pollen archive, where we store samples from the last 45 years. On the other hand, new pollen falls into our traps every day, and that in the truest sense of the word. Currently, seven Tyrolean pollen traps are active: in Innsbruck, Zams, Lienz, Reutte, Wörgl, Galtür and Obergurgl. These different locations allow us to make detailed analyses and predictions for the different regions and altitudes in Tyrol. In the future, we will be able to use so-called deep learning technology to evaluate the samples; the project to prepare for this is already underway. In this way, we will be able to identify long-term trends even better in the future and make predictions about how air pollution and fuel emissions affect the concentration of pollen in the air and the pollen flight seasons. In our ongoing research project, we compare pollen samples from our archive with current measurements. The aim is to find out how and why the concentration of pollen in Tyrolean air has changed in recent decades. From the results we hope to make a valuable contribution to the health of the Tyrolean population and the challenges that ongoing climate change and intensive land use have on all of us.