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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] BBC News - Bees' foraging for flowers 'hampered by diesel exhaust'
  • Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2013 12:08:26 -0400

*
BBC News - Bees' foraging for flowers 'hampered by diesel exhaust'*
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/24364637

3 October 2013 Last updated at 09:01 ET

Bees' foraging for flowers 'hampered by diesel exhaust' By Victoria
Gill Science
reporter, BBC News
Related Stories

- What is killing our honey bees?
Watch<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23546889>
- How do you track a honey
bee?<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23448846>
- 'Parasite threat' from imported
bees<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23347867>

Honeybees' ability to find flowers could be hampered by a chemical in
diesel exhaust, say scientists.

Tests showed that exhaust degraded some floral scent chemicals the bees
"home in on" when they are foraging.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, also revealed that a specific
group of chemicals found in diesel exhaust, known as NOx, diminished the
insects' response to floral scents.

They say the results are evidence that air quality should be improved.

"We got into this, because we were aware of the impacts of airborne
pollutants on human health, so it didn't seem so wild that there may be
impacts that extended beyond human health," said University of Southampton
neuroscientist Dr Tracey
Newman<http://www.southampton.ac.uk/medicine/about/staff/tan.page#background>,
who was involved in the work.
Continue reading the main
story<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/24364637#story_continues_2>

- Bees have different colour-detection systems from humans, and can see
the world in ultraviolet.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11971274>This helps them
to detect the flowers they pollinate and take nectar from
- Pollination is essential for agriculture, as well as the reproduction
of non-food flowers and plants. According to the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization, pollinators including bees, birds and bats are involved in
more than a third of the world's crop production
- Honeybees <http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/European_honey_bee>evolved
to make honey as a food source for the colony. Selective breeding
of European honeybees by humans has produced colonies that make excess
honey for us to harvest


- How beehives are used to prevent elephant crop
raids<http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14106484>
- See how honeybees protect their hives from attacking
hornets<http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/16981702>

To drill down to the chemical effects of pollution on the pollinators, the
researchers made a mixture of the volatile, or smelly, chemicals that make
up the scent of oilseed rape.

They then used a diesel-powered generator to create a mixture of air and
exhaust that closely matched levels of exhaust found on a busy road, and
mixed this lab-made air pollution with the floral scent mix.

"We saw that there was loss of two of the components [of the floral odour
mixture]," Dr Newman said.

The two odour chemicals that were "lost" had chemically reacted with a
component of the diesel exhaust, mono-nitrogen oxide, known as NOx.

Having worked out how the pollution affected the chemistry of floral
scents, the team set out to discover if the bees were affected by this
change.

"Bees need to decipher the chemical messages they're getting [from flowers]
to be able to home in on the flowers they know will give the best yield [of
nectar]," said Dr Newman.

The pollinators, she said, learned to recognise the scents of nectar-rich
flowers and this enabled them to forage more efficiently.
Sniff test

The team carried out a test that involved teaching bees to associate the
smell of a particular chemical with being given a drop of sugary liquid.

Bees respond to the taste of the sugar by sticking out their tongues - just
as they do when drinking nectar from a flower. So after a few trials where
the scent of the odour is followed closely by a sweet drop of liquid, the
bees stick out their tongues as soon as they detect the scent.

This miniature taste test, known as the proboscis extension reflex (PER)
test, can be used to work out if bees are able to detect the scent of a
flower

"Having trained a bunch of bees, we then tested to see if they would
respond in the same way to the mixture that was depleted by exposure to NOx
[the reactive chemical in diesel exhaust]," said Dr Newman.

When these odour chemicals were degraded by NOx, the bees were much less
responsive to their smell and would not stick out their tongues.

Biologist and lead researcher Dr Guy Poppy
<http://www.southampton.ac.uk/biosci/about/staff/gmp.page>added that the
airborne pollution appeared to be interfering with "the complex
relationship" that had evolved between plants and animals.

"Flowers have evolved to produce chemical mixtures that attract
pollinators," he told BBC News.

Dr Newman added that the study highlighted the need to reduce pollution and
improve air quality, in order to protect pollinating insects as well as
improve human health.

The value to food production of so-called "pollination services" is
estimated to be hundreds of millions of pounds per year in the UK alone.

Prof James Nieh, who studies honeybee health and behaviour at the
University of California San
Diego<http://www-biology.ucsd.edu/faculty/nieh.html>,
said that the research posed a "largely unexplored question".

"Most research on such contaminants has focused on pesticides," he told BBC
News.

"But bees are subject to a much wider variety of pollutants and
contaminants. The influence and potential synergy of these pollutants with
pesticides should be studied."
More on This Story
Related Stories

- What is killing our honey bees?
Watch<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23546889>
02 AUGUST 2013, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
- How do you track a honey
bee?<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23448846>
01 AUGUST 2013, MAGAZINE
- 'Parasite threat' from imported
bees<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23347867>
17 JULY 2013, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT



  • [permaculture] BBC News - Bees' foraging for flowers 'hampered by diesel exhaust', Lawrence London, 10/03/2013

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