Katarina Zimmer: “In the summers of 2018 and 2019, the ecologist James Ryalls and his colleagues would go out to a field near Reading, in southern England, to stare at the insects buzzing around black-mustard plants. Each time a bee, a hoverfly, a moth, a butterfly, or another insect tried to get at the pollen or nectar in the small yellow flowers, the scientists would make a note. [~https://theatln.tc/RqsaNl7G~](https://theatln.tc/RqsaNl7G)
“It was part of an unusual experiment. Some patches of mustard plants were surrounded by pipes that released ozone and nitrogen oxides—polluting gases produced by many power plants and gas-powered cars. Other plots had pipes that were releasing normal air.
“The results startled the scientists. The plants smothered by pollutants were visited by up to 70 percent fewer insects overall, and their flowers received up to 90 percent fewer visits compared with those in unpolluted plots. The concentrations of pollutants were well below what U.S. regulators consider safe levels. ‘We didn’t expect it to be quite as dramatic as that,’ says study co-author Robbie Girling, an entomologist at the University of Southern Queensland, in Australia, and a visiting professor at the University of Reading.
“A growing body of research suggests that pollution can disrupt insect attraction to plants—at a time when many insect populations are already suffering deep declines due to agricultural chemicals, habitat loss, and climate change. About 75 percent of flowering plants and about 35 percent of food crops rely on animals to move pollen around so that plants can fertilize one another and form seeds. Even the black-mustard plants used in the experiment, which can self-fertilize, exhibited a drop of 14 percent to 31 percent in successful pollination, as measured by three different pollination metrics.
“Scientists are still working out how strong and widespread these effects of pollution are, and how they operate. They’re learning that pollution may have a surprising diversity of effects, including changing the scents that draw insects to flowers, and warping the creatures’ ability to smell, learn, and remember.”
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Katarina Zimmer: “In the summers of 2018 and 2019, the ecologist James Ryalls and his colleagues would go out to a field near Reading, in southern England, to stare at the insects buzzing around black-mustard plants. Each time a bee, a hoverfly, a moth, a butterfly, or another insect tried to get at the pollen or nectar in the small yellow flowers, the scientists would make a note. [~https://theatln.tc/RqsaNl7G~](https://theatln.tc/RqsaNl7G)
“It was part of an unusual experiment. Some patches of mustard plants were surrounded by pipes that released ozone and nitrogen oxides—polluting gases produced by many power plants and gas-powered cars. Other plots had pipes that were releasing normal air.
“The results startled the scientists. The plants smothered by pollutants were visited by up to 70 percent fewer insects overall, and their flowers received up to 90 percent fewer visits compared with those in unpolluted plots. The concentrations of pollutants were well below what U.S. regulators consider safe levels. ‘We didn’t expect it to be quite as dramatic as that,’ says study co-author Robbie Girling, an entomologist at the University of Southern Queensland, in Australia, and a visiting professor at the University of Reading.
“A growing body of research suggests that pollution can disrupt insect attraction to plants—at a time when many insect populations are already suffering deep declines due to agricultural chemicals, habitat loss, and climate change. About 75 percent of flowering plants and about 35 percent of food crops rely on animals to move pollen around so that plants can fertilize one another and form seeds. Even the black-mustard plants used in the experiment, which can self-fertilize, exhibited a drop of 14 percent to 31 percent in successful pollination, as measured by three different pollination metrics.
“Scientists are still working out how strong and widespread these effects of pollution are, and how they operate. They’re learning that pollution may have a surprising diversity of effects, including changing the scents that draw insects to flowers, and warping the creatures’ ability to smell, learn, and remember.”
Read more: [~https://theatln.tc/RqsaNl7G~](https://theatln.tc/RqsaNl7G)
Seems to be impacting human intelligence as well…