Phenology: What’s Public Health got to do with it?

Abstract:

Climate change is anticipated to result in myriad health impacts on human health: air pollution and allergens are anticipated to result in increased rates of asthma and respiratory diseases in children; warmer temperatures are expected to increase risk of waterborne, foodborne and vector-borne diseases. However, these impacts will not be equivocal; the nature and extent of health impacts of climate change will vary widely from region to region and will be felt unequally among communities around the country. The human systems interact with ecosystem changes to moderate impacts on human health and wellbeing. Climate change is a threat multiplier that requires the adoption of collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approaches to both understand and address these health impacts. The public health sector, at the center of the healthcare response to climate change, relies on collaboration with partners spanning the environmental, human, and animal dimensions to monitor and address threats to health.

The timing of plant and animal seasonal activity, called phenology, offers important connections to the field of public health. Phenology forecasting tools that predict when disease vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks are active and the onset and intensity of allergy season have potential to inform human health.

A collaboration involving the USA National Phenology Network and researchers at the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health set out to determine how phenology data and data products could meet the needs of public health practitioners. Needs assessment interviews were conducted with 31 public health practitioners and researchers from January to August of 2019. The interviews shed light on the lack of information on disease vector phenology across all levels of the public health community. Respondents were generally receptive to the idea of forecasts that would predict the activity of mosquitoes and ticks.

This case study demonstrates the need for more data sharing between the field of public health and environmental sciences. Health is a crosscutting issue that is moderated by varied factors. Public health and natural sciences partnerships cannot only inform public health decision-making but also enhance the usability of natural sciences data to benefit society.