Diesel pollution can cause serious damage to honeybee population

Honeybees play extremely important role in global economy, due to pollination which significantly increases the yield of many crops, thus resulting in more food. Sadly, bees are said to be rapidly declining in many parts of the world due to pollution with pesticides and several other reasons. The latest study from the University of Southampton showed that diesel fuel is also among the factors that have negative impact on honeybees.

The UK scientists from the Southampton University have found the connection between the air pollutants found in diesel exhaust and the bees inability to recognize flower odors.

Honeybees use floral odors in order to locate, identify and recognize the flowers from which they forage but chemicals found in diesel exhaust such as NOx gases alter the odor's profile of flowers thus making honeybees unable to recognize flowers.

Emissions limits for nitrogen dioxide are regularly exceeded in large parts of the world, especially in urban areas which could lead to even bigger decline in honeybee population thus further reducing global pollination activity and leading to reduced food production.

It has been said that honeybees use a variety of chemicals found in a floral blend to discriminate between different blends and they certainly do not need various nitrogen oxides to disrupt their recognition process, especially now when world is rightly worried about the ongoing decline in bee population.

Global food security without preserving honeybees is almost unimaginable and we must discover all the factors that have contributed to decline in honeybee population and reduce them as much as possible.