Botany OneAir pollution makes it harder for bees to smell flowers
https://botany.fyi/lu1v5p
Contaminants can alter plant odors and warp insects’ senses, disrupting the process of pollination.
#Botany
Albert CardonaExperiment: "Some patches of mustard plants were surrounded by pipes that released ozone and nitrogen oxides — polluting gases produced around power plants and conventional cars. Other plots had pipes releasing normal air."
Result: "Plants smothered by pollutants were visited by up to 70 percent fewer insects overall, and their flowers received 90 percent fewer visits compared with those in unpolluted plots. The concentrations of pollutants were well below what US regulators consider safe."
Holy mackerel!
And the results are from 2 years ago:
"Anthropogenic air pollutants reduce insect-mediated pollination services", Ryalls et al. 2022
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749122000616
