The
importance of bees in our food system often goes unappreciated. As the daily commerce,
these insects are responsible for pollinating the flowers and crops in
agriculture. That provides approximately 90 percent of the global food supply.
According to the most recent estimate for the economic value of this bee
activity is that it’s worth over $ 200 billion.
Honey bees to pollinate the nectar
But in recent years, an alarming number of bee
colonies across North America and Europe have begun to collapse. As this is the
part of the phenomenon, it’s mainly called Colony Collapse Disorder. The
worker bees are failed to return to the hive after their pollen-collecting
trips nearby. According to the research of the scientist, they still don’t
fully understand what’s driving this trend, but the list of culprits likely
includes pesticides, viral infections, intensive agriculture and perhaps even the
practice of feeding bee’s high fructose corn syrup in place of the honey.
In a recently research, it suggests that there
may be an unnoticed problem: the exhaust fumes produced by diesel-powered
engines. As described in Scientific Reports, a group of researchers from
the UK’s University of Southampton found that the pollution produced by diesel
combustion reduces bees’ ability to recognize the scent of various flowers—a
key sense they use in navigating and finding food sources.
“Honeybees are very sensitive
in sense of smell and an incomparable capacity to learn and to memorize the new
odors,” Tracey Newman, a neuroscientist who worked on the study, said in a statement.
“Our results suggest that diesel exhaust pollution alters the components of a
synthetic floral odor merge, which affects the honeybee’s recognition of the
odor. This could have serious detrimental effects on the number of honeybee
colonies and pollination activity.” And due to this honey bees number is
decreases day by day.
Honey bees collecting nectar.
The group of researchers used extract from oil seed
rape flowers to create an odor that mimics the natural smell of several different
flowers that the bees can pollinate normally. They also mixed the scented
air with diesel exhausts at a variety of concentrations. After that
they seen just 30 percent of the bees were still able to recognize it and
extend their proboscis. So due to this study it’s confirm that diesel exhausted
scent created the problems for the honey bees.
And it follows that diesel fumes could play a role in Colony
Collapse Disorder: If bees are less effective at navigating and finding nectar,
they might be more likely to get lost in large numbers. Colony collapse is
typically characterized by the persistent disappearance of worker bees during
their travels—so it’s possible that the effects of engine exhaust play a role.
“Diesel exhaust is not the root of the
problem,” said Newman said in a press briefing. “But if you think of a circumstances
where a bee is dealing with viral infections, all the other stresses it has to
deal with—another thing that makes it harder for the bee to work in its
environment is likely to have detrimental consequences.
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