According to a study, fertilizers can alter the look of flowers and discourage bees from pollinating.
Small electric fields can be used to attract flowers that bees recognize. This is the study. Publication in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS NexusWednesday was a day when it was discovered that fertilizers can alter the electric field and bees seem to find this strange.
With electric charges, flowers lure bees
Scientists investigated the effect of fertilizers on the color, smell, and electric charge of the flower for Bumblebees. This is a gentle species of bees that is easy to experiment with.
Bees have a variety of cues to choose which flower they will land on. They are attracted to certain scents and colors just like us. However, bees also depend on the electric field in a flower.
Their bodies become positively charged as they fly through the air. They sensed the electric field created by negatively charged flowers as a magnet and their tiny bodies became positively charged.
They change the electric field of flowers when they pollinate. These flowers will likely be tapped out by the next generation of bees, which will allow them to skip them completely.
Fertilizers modify the electric field
The study revealed that the flowers’ color and smell didn’t change when synthetic fertilizers were applied to the fields.
But it did affect “magnitude and dynamics” of the electric field – essentially the way the flower’s electric fields would look to the bees, Ellard Hunting, a study author and biophysicist from the University of Bristol, Telled Insider.
Ellard Hunting, a biophysicist and study author from the University of Bristol said, “If you think about that in terms of sight, it’s almost like that light is too bright, and it’s blinding people.” Telled Insider.
Bees aren’t only attracted to the negative charge of the flower – they can also learn to read specific characteristics of the electric fields, a2013 study by the same group.
This study revealed that bees may be capable of generating honey. Recognize different properties of artificial electric fields.Find a sugary treat.
The scientists artificially charged the flowers with electricity to see if the electric field from the sprayed flower was keeping the bees away. These flowers were less likely to be avoided by bumblebees, they found.
It is possible for this to have a knock on effect as bees can learn from Hunter. .
“If you spray a bee field and the bees discover a field, and it seems to them that: ‘okay. This is not right,’ then they won’t go there anymore, and they will communicate this with each other.” Hunting .
The most important pollinator is the bees
Hunter isn’t the only chemical capable of altering the electric field. . He stated that it’s possible that other chemicals such as pesticides will have a similar effect.
It is important that the fertilizers weren’t sprayed directly on the plants, he added. The fertilizers would have interacted completely differently with flowers if they had been added directly to the soil.
However, there is still much to learn about the chemical changes that affect how bees spot flowers. This information is vital.
Bees pollinate Around a third (33%) of the world’s crop production is from this region.Two-thirds of the fruits and seeds crops depend on pollinators for their sustained production. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture administration.
Humans would be forced to give up some of the most nutritious fruits and veggies, such as berries, almonds and cucumbers, if not for bees. Previously reported.
This article was originally published in Business Insider.
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