Pollen Trackers campaign
Greetings!

We hope that you were not too adversely impacted by the recent storm! At long last, we've arrived at the end of the Juniperus ashei pollen season. Over the last two months, 46 of you observed 143 trees a total of 1,192 times at 61 different sites. That's a lot of data! These observations are already providing insight into where in Texas Juniperus ashei began releasing pollen early (like Kerrville and Austin) and areas where pollen was released relatively late this year (like Menard and San Antonio).

Based on our preliminary analyses, it appears that precipitation may be driving some of these patterns. As we delve into the data in the coming months, we'll keep you updated.

Thanks again for helping to collect the measurements that make this work possible!

Best,
Dan, Erin, and the Pollen Trackers team

PS- If you happen to have any eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) in your area, we'd value any measurements on their pollen cones too! That species generally occurs to the east of I-35. 
What did you report on Juniperus ashei this season?
This season, 46 observers reported on Juniperus ashei at 61 different sites. Your data captured the timing of open pollen cones for 94 trees and the timing of pollen release in 79 trees. Impressive!

The map below shows the locations where observers have reported on juniper since we started the campaign in December of 2019. Darker colors indicate more observations at that site.
In the phenology calendar below, the colored lines indicate at least one observer reported "yes"for that phenophase, or life cycle event, on that date. Gray lines indicate an observer looked but did not see the phenophase on their juniper. Those gray lines, the "no"s, are very important in helping us pinpoint when a phenophase started and ended.
Activity curves provide further detail about the amount of "yes" records reported for these phenophases. In 2020, there was a peak in open pollen cones in early January and again in late February. This year, there were peaks in mid-January and late-January.
For pollen release, in 2020 there was a peak in mid-January and a smaller peak in mid-February. This year, there was a peak in mid-January.
If you are interested in continuing to track pollen data right now, we invite you to record data on a closely related species, Juniperus virginiana. We expect this species to start releasing pollen this month!

Thank you for your contributions to this important campaign! We hope you will join us again next season to observe phenology of junipers.
Contact
Dr. Dan Katz
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dell Medical School
University of Texas - Austin
(510) 207-9928
Erin Posthumus
Outreach Coordinator
520-621-1670