Air pollution: threat to insect pollination

Reference

• According to a new research study published in the journal Nature Communications, bees and other beneficial insects are harmed more by air pollution than crop-destroying pests.
• The researchers analysed the data to understand the response of insects to air pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and particulate matter.

About insect pollination

• Insects help pollinate a wide variety of crop and wild plants, providing food security to humans and sustaining wild plant populations.
• However, insect pollinator populations are declining worldwide, primarily due to human activities.
  • For example, intensive agricultural pesticide use, destruction and degradation of suitable habitats, and a loss of diversity of floral resources are all causing pollinator numbers to decline.

Key findings of the research study

• According to the study, exposure to high air pollution levels reduced the foraging ability of pollinators, including bees, some insects and butterflies, by 39%.
  • On the contrary, there has been no significant impact on plant-eating aphids and other insects.
• Beneficial insects, such as bees and wasps, are disproportionately affected by air pollution because they rely on odor-based communication.
• Many beneficial insects use chemical cues in the air to locate flowers, find mates, or stalk prey.
  • Air pollutants can chemically alter odor pathways or interfere with insects' ability to detect them, essentially disrupting their sensory landscape.
• In contrast, many insects rely less on long-range odor signals and more on direct contact or visual cues, making them less vulnerable to the effects of air pollution on airborne chemical signals.
• Of all these factors, air pollution affected insects' ability to find food the most, decreasing by about one-third on average.
• Of the air pollutants, ozone proved particularly harmful to beneficial insects, reducing their ability to thrive and perform their role in the ecosystem by up to 35%.
• Nitrogen oxides also harmed beneficial insects to a great extent.