Page - 47 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

47© The Author(s) 2019 M. R. Marselle et  al. (eds.), Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02318-8_3 Chapter 3 Climate Change and  Pollen Allergies Athanasios  Damialis, Claudia  Traidl-Hoffmann, and  Regina  Treudler Abstract This chapter reviews the emerging importance of pollen allergies in rela- tion to ongoing climate change. Allergic diseases have been increasing in preva- lence over the last decades, partly as the result of the impact of climate change. Increased sensitisation rates and more severe symptoms have been the partial out- come of: increased pollen production of wind-pollinated plants resulting in long- term increased abundance of pollen in the air we breathe; earlier shifts of airborne pollen seasons making occurrence of allergic symptoms harder to predict and deal with efficiently; increased allergenicity of pollen causing more severe health effects in allergic individuals; introduction of new, invasive allergenic plant species causing new sensitisations; environment-environment interactions, such as plants and hosted microorganisms, i.e. fungi and bacteria, which comprise a complex and dynamic system, with additive, presently unforeseeable influences on human health; A. Damialis (*) Chair of Environmental Medicine (UNIKA-T), Technical University of Munich, Augsburg, Germany Institute of Environmental Medicine, Helmholtz Zentrum München  – German Research Center for Environmental Health, Augsburg, Germany e-mail: thanos.damialis@tum.de C. Traidl-Hoffmann Chair of Environmental Medicine (UNIKA-T), Technical University of Munich, Augsburg, Germany Institute of Environmental Medicine, Helmholtz Zentrum München  – German Research Center for Environmental Health, Augsburg, Germany CK-CARE  – Christine Kühne Center for Allergy Research and Education, Davos, Switzerland e-mail: c.traidl-hoffmann@tum.de R. Treudler Department of Dermatology, Venerology and Allergology, University of Leipzig Medical Centre, Leipzig, Germany Leipzig Interdisiplinary Centre for Allergology (LICA), University of Leipzig Medical Centre, Leipzig, Germany e-mail: allergie-hautklinik@medizin.uni-leipzig.de