[ocba] [Fwd: Concerned about the decline of honeybees and other pollinators?]

Buck Horton buck_horton at unc.edu
Fri Apr 25 11:28:03 EDT 2008


 From a UVA study on the affects of air pollution on insect pollinators.
- Buck

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Concerned about the decline of honeybees and other pollinators?
Date: 	Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:02:38 -0400
From: 	Sandy Bisdee <sandybisdee at hotmail.com>
To: 	<whorton at email.unc.edu>
References: 	<8e9c4e940804170914t7bf25a59m25adcfbd7ee353a8 at mail.gmail.com>




Dear Buck,
I have been saving this for you, thinking that you might be 
interested. Your e-mail was very interesting and  I can really hear your 
enthusiasm.  Thank you.
 
Sandy B.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:14:10 -0400
    From: healingrhythms at gmail.com
    To: asnc-list at rtpnet.org
    Subject: [asnc-list] Concerned about the decline of honeybees and
    other pollinators?


    We are all wondering what is really happening with the bees.  This
    study sheds some light on this concern.


      Flowers' Fragrance Diminished by Air Pollution

    by Leslee Dru Browning (see all articles by this author)
    <http://www.naturalnews.com/Author63.html>


    (NaturalNews) We have all wondered what was happening to the honey
    bees. Now, from recent research by the University of Virginia, we
    have an answer.

    Air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the
    fragrance of flowers and thereby inhibiting the ability of
    pollinating insects to follow scent trails to their source, a new
    University of Virginia study indicates. This could partially explain
    why wild populations of some pollinators, particularly bees �- which
    need nectar for food �- are declining in several areas of the world,
    including California and the Netherlands. The study appears online
    in the journal /Atmospheric Environment/.

    "The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted
    environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to
    1,200 meters; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major
    cites, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters," said Jose D.
    Fuentes, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of
    Virginia and a co-author of the study. "This makes it increasingly
    difficult for pollinators to locate the flowers."

    The result, potentially, is a vicious cycle where pollinators
    struggle to find enough food to sustain their populations, and
    populations of flowering plants, in turn, do not get pollinated
    sufficiently to proliferate and diversify.

    Other studies, as well as the actual experience of farmers, have
    shown that populations of bees, particularly bumblebees, and
    butterflies have declined greatly in recent years. Fuentes and his
    team of University of Virginia researchers, including Quinn
    McFrederick and James Kathilankal, believe that air pollution
    <http://www.naturalnews.com/air_pollution.html>, especially during
    the peak period of summer, may be a factor.

    To investigate this, they created a mathematical model of how the
    scents of flowers travel with the wind. The scent molecules produced
    by flowers are very volatile and they quickly bond with pollutants
    such as ozone, hydroxyl and nitrate radicals, which destroy the
    aromas they produce. This means that instead of traveling intact for
    long distances with the wind, the scents are chemically altered and
    the flowers, in a sense, no longer smell like flowers. This forces
    pollinators to search farther and longer and possibly to rely more
    on sight and less on smell.

    The scientists calculated scent levels and distances that scents can
    travel under different conditions, from relatively unpolluted
    pre-industrial revolution levels, to the conditions now existing in
    rural areas downwind from large cities.

    "It quickly became apparent that air pollution
    <http://www.naturalnews.com/pollution.html> destroys the aroma of
    flowers, by as much as 90 percent from periods before automobiles
    <http://www.naturalnews.com/automobiles.html> and heavy industry,"
    Fuentes said. "And the more air pollution there is in a region, the
    greater the destruction of the flower scents."

    The National Science Foundation funded the investigation.

    I, myself, have often wondered if air pollution may be the
    underlying cause of many of the new emerging chronic debilitating
    diseases like fibromyalgia, childhood asthma and other illnesses
    that seem to have proliferated in the last 20 years.

    Sources:

    Newswise ((http://www.newswise.com:80/articles/vie...
    <http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/539702/?sc=dwhr>)

    University of Virginia News Source (http://www.virginia.edu/)


      About the author

    Leslee Dru Browning is a 6th generation Medical Herbalist &
    Nutritionist from the ancestral line of Patty Bartlett Sessions;
    Pioneer Mid-Wife & Herbalist. Leslee practiced Medical Herbalism and
    Nutritional Healing for over 25 years and specialized in Cancer
    Wellness along with Chronic Illness. She now devotes her career to
    teaching people, through her writing, about Natural Healing from An
    Herbal Perspective.

    -- 

    Margaretta Bornhorst
    919-824-7337 


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to work after baby– how do you know when you’re ready? 
<http://lifestyle.msn.com/familyandparenting/articleNW.aspx?cp-documentid=5797498&ocid=T067MSN40A0701A> 

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