Air Pollution Can Disrupt Pollinating Insects By Concealing the Scent of Flowers

vinces99 writes Car and truck exhaust fumes that foul the air for humans also cause problems for pollinators. In new research on how pollinators find flowers when background odors are strong, University of Washington and University of Arizona researchers found that both natural plant odors and human sources of pollution can conceal the scent of sought-after flowers. When the calories from one feeding of a flower gets you only 15 minutes of flight, as is the case with the tobacco hornworn moth studied, being misled costs a pollinator energy and time. "Local vegetation can mask the scent of flowers because the background scents activate the same moth olfactory channels as floral scents," according to Jeffrey Riffell, UW assistant professor of biology. "Plus the chemicals in these scents are similar to those emitted from exhaust engines and we found that pollutant concentrations equivalent to urban environments can decrease the ability of pollinators to find flowers."

Comments

Easy fix

[Anonymous Coward]

We just need to create tiny insect robots to replace the defective real insects.

Gardeners have already known this

[CycleMan]

It's been standard knowledge for home gardeners that growing just one thing (e.g. tomatoes or carrots) in a certain space makes it easy for the bugs that feed on it to find it, but if you mix things up then the pests are confused and less successful. To protect against plant-specific pests, put a variety of things together in your garden: flowers, herbs, vegetables. The good pollinators like honeybees will love it; the carrot fly and tomato hornworm moth will have a much harder time finding the carrots and tomatoes to land on and lay their eggs.

Re:Gardeners have already known this

[Mashiki]

Shh. If you tell people that they won't know that this has been known since we started agriculture. As a useful tip: Planting tobacco plants mixed with plants that are sensitive to pest infestations will help minimize it.

Re:Gardeners have already known this

[Charliemopps]

Shh. If you tell people that they won't know that this has been known since we started agriculture. As a useful tip: Planting tobacco plants mixed with plants that are sensitive to pest infestations will help minimize it.

Dill keeps away rabbits. There's a whole "Amateur scientist" Thing with this. I grow a lot of stuff, and I still constantly finding out new things. The issue is that it's regional... what works here might not work 50 miles away. The Internet is not good at disseminating such specific information. The best suggestion I have is to know other people in your area that do the same thing. Especially old people... Farmers almanac is good to. But keep in mind, there's a lot of BS in both sources as well so be skeptical.

Re:First Boo Fucking Hoo

[Concerned Onlooker]

"Flowers are for women and fags."

And the food web. Don't forget that.

Neonicotinoids can cause problems for pollinators

[tlambert]

Neonicotinoids can cause problems for pollinators by concealing their metabolism.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ne...

Re:so electric cars

[Thanshin]

It's a good idea, congratulations on thinking outside of the box, but electric cars are a bit too cumbersome for that. They'd also need a driver, as tobacco hornworns can't drive.

Bad example

[cmdr_tofu]

I'm pretty sure tobacco hornworms are a pest, not a farm-aid. At least if my memory serves me correctly they are BIG critters and demolish tomato plants. Luckily a tiny wasp (bracconid) likes to lay its eggs in the skin of the tobacco hornworm and the hatchlings devour that critter. Whenever I'd find them in my garden I'd toss them into the woods.

I guess in their moth stage they are pollinators. I did not know this.