Air pollution dangerously disrupting bees’ ability to pollinate flowers

By Jim Leffman via SWNS

Air pollution can reduce a bee's ability to sniff out flowers by up to 90 percent, a shocking study has revealed.

And the effect was noticeable even when the insects were just a few feet from the flower.

Researchers found that ozone changes the size and scent of floral odor plumes given off by flowers.

Ozone at ground level is typically formed when car pollution nitrogen oxide reacts with volatile organic compounds emitted from vegetation in the presence of sunlight.

A team from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and the Universities of Birmingham, Reading, Surrey and Southern Queensland, made the discovery, published in the journal Environmental Pollution.

Professor Christian Pfrang (corr) from the University of Birmingham said: “Our study provides robust evidence that the changes due to ground-level ozone on floral scent cause pollinators to struggle to carry out their crucial role in the natural environment also with implications for food security.”

The findings suggest that ozone is likely to be having a negative impact on wildflower abundance and crop yields.

International research has already established that ozone has a negative impact on food production because it damages plant growth.

Dr. Ben Langford, an atmospheric scientist at UKCEH who led the study said: ”Some 75 percent of our food crops and nearly 90 percent of wild flowering plants depend, to some extent, upon animal pollination, particularly by insects.

"Therefore, understanding what adversely affects pollination, and how, is essential to helping us preserve the critical services that we rely upon for production of food, textiles, biofuels and medicines, for example.”

The team used a 30-meter wind tunnel at Surrey University to monitor how the size and shape of odor plumes changed in the presence of ozone.

As well as decreasing the size of the odor plume the scientists found that the scent of the plume changed substantially as certain compounds reacted away much faster than others.

Honeybees were trained to recognize the same odor blend and were then exposed to the new, ozone-modified odors.

Pollinating insects use floral odors to find flowers and learn to associate their unique blend of chemical compounds with the amount of nectar it provides, allowing them to locate the same species in the future.

The research showed that towards the center of plumes, 52 percent of honeybees recognized an odor at six meters, decreasing to 38 percent at 12 meters.

At the edge of plumes, which degraded more quickly, 32 percent of honeybees recognized a flower from six metres away and just a tenth of the insects from 12 m away.

The study indicates that ozone could also affect insects’ other odor-controlled behaviors such as attracting a mate.

The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, and was published in the journal Environmental Pollution.

Professor Christian Pfrang added: “We know that air pollution has a detrimental effect on human health, biodiversity and the climate but now we can see how it prevents bees and other pollinating insects from carrying out their key job.

"This should act as a wake-up call to take action on air pollution and help safeguard food production and biodiversity for the future.“