Times of India , Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Correspondent : Staff Reporter

LONDON: Researchers at the University of Virginia have shown that air pollution from power plants and automobiles is wiping out the fragrance of flowers and thus hampering the ability of pollinating insects to track scent trails to their source. The researchers say that the findings could partly explain why wild populations of some pollinators, mainly bees, which need nectar for food, are fading in several areas of the world, including California and the Netherlands. "The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 metres; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cites, they may travel only 200 to 300 metres," said Jose Fuentes, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a co-author of the study. "This makes it increasingly difficult for pollinators to locate the flowers," he added. The result, potentially, is a fierce cycle where pollinators struggle to find sufficient food to keep up their populations. As a result, the populations of flowering plants do not get pollinated sufficiently to proliferate and diversify.

SOURCE : Times of India, Tuesday, 15 April 2008