A chemical in diesel exhaust could hinder a honeybee's ability to smell flowers and find pollen BBC News reported.
"We got into this, because we were aware of the impacts of airborne pollutants on human health, so it didn't seem so wild that there may be impacts that extended beyond human health," Dr. Tracey Newman, a neuroscientist at the University of Southampton told BBC News.
Researchers found that a specific group of chemicals in the diesel exhaust known as mono-nitrogen oxide limited the insects' response to be being able to smell the flowers scents. This therefore indicated air quality needs to be improved.
"We saw that there was loss of two of the components [of the floral odour mixture]," Newman told BBC. "Bees need to decipher the chemical messages they're getting [from flowers] to be able to hone in on the flowers they know will give the best yield [of nectar]."
In order to figure out the effects chemicals had on pollinators, the team created a mixture of volatile or smelly chemicals which make up the scent that come from oil seed crops. They then used a diesel-powered generator to make a mixture of air and exhaust to resemble the exhaust on a busy road. This was then combined with the floral scent mix.
A diesel-powered generator was then utilized to create a mixture of air and exhaust that closely matched levels of exhaust found on a busy road. Researchers then mixed this lab made air pollution with the floral scent mix. When this was done, the two chemicals which were "lost" during the mixture, had come back to existence by way of the mono-nitrogen oxide.
"Flowers have evolved to produce chemical mixtures that attract pollinators," the project's biologist and lead researcher, Guy Poppy, told BBC News.
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