Air pollutants disrupt the floral cues used by pollinators

A new study shows that air pollution degrades the components of floral odour plumes that is detected by pollinators. Bee recognition of floral odours declined significantly following reaction with O3. This has important implications for ecosystem health as it might disrupt pollination and likely impacts on other critical odour-mediated behaviours such as mate attraction.

The study was led by Dr Ben Langford and was published in Environmental Pollination.

Image from Langford et al. 2023.