How Pollen is Collected and Counted

For almost two decades the City of Albuquerque has collected and counted pollen. While the methods have changed over the past few years the effort to accurately collect and count the pollen has not. In 2001 the Air Quality Division upgraded the pollen program's equipment. Doing the upgrade brought the program up to speed with other national pollen counting programs. The City operates two pollen samplers, one in the northeast heights and one on the Westside. The NE Heights site is at Zuni park near Pennsylvania and Menaul, the Westside sampler is near Montaño and Coors.

What's the First Step

The City uses two Burkard volumetric spore traps with two 24 hour sample heads . By using the Burkard sampler with the 24 hour sample head common laboratory slides can be used to collect the pollen. Slides are labeled and then prepared using a very thin film of a high quality vacuum grease. Slide are then placed in the Burkard samplers and allowed to run for approximately 24 hours.

What's the Second Step

The following morning staff remove the sample slides and install the next day's sample slides. The slides are then transported to the Air Quality Division's westside office. At the office the pollen counter takes the slides, warms the glycerine jelly staining agent, slides and cover slips, then stains the exposed sample slide. A cover slip is placed on top of the sample slide and the slides are allowed to cool. The red staining agent is absorbed by the pollen on the sample slide making the pollen easier to identify.

What's the Third Step

The slide is mounted on the reading microscope. At a 40x objective all pollen within an entire length of the sample area (approximately 48 mm long by 0.54 mm) is counted, if values are low then more than one or two traverses are counted. The pollen are then statistically calculated for the entire exposed sample area, the statistical calculation becomes the official pollen count.

What's the Fourth Step

The pollen count is reported by phone, email listserv and on the City's website. The phone message is part of the Air Quality Index reporting and can be reached at 768-4734 or 766-7664. Signing up for the pollen listserv can be done at todays pollen count.

In addition to reporting the pollen data, historical pollen data can be found at:

• Pollen Data Report - provides data from March 2004 to now
• Pollen Data (MSExcel) (296kb) - contains data from March 2001 through October 2003

What Else

The Division remains active in identifying local pollens not typically found in pollen identification documents. Staff also collect, identify and take digital images of local pollens to develop a catalog of local pollens. Go here to see images of local pollen.