How Air Pollution Harms Pollination

by Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg
January 26, 2024

Pollination, i.e. the transfer of pollen grains from the male to the female organs, is an essential part of reproduction for the majority of plants. For many of these plants, this transfer is carried out by insects in search of food – this is known as insect pollination.

The impact of humans on the environment extends to pollination and pollinators and can have lasting effects on these sensitive relationships.

The Chair of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) is investigating precisely such effects on our ecosystems. Dr. Laura Duque and Professor Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter have now summarized the latest research findings on how air pollutants – in particular ozone, diesel exhaust and particulate matter – could endanger insect pollination in a review article.

Keep reading: https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/aktuelles/einblick/single/news/how-air-pollution-harms-pollination/

Read the Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.2701