|| The First Evidence That Albatrosses Use Infrasound to Navigate Long Journeys ||

 

 

|| Saturday: October 14: 2023 || ά. A new Study by the University of Liverpool provides the first evidence that wandering albatrosses, one of the widest-ranging seabirds, may use infrasound to help them navigate long and featureless foraging trips covering thousands of miles. In a Paper, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University’s School of Environmental Sciences show that albatrosses orientate towards areas of ‘loud’ microbarom infrasound when flying on long distance foraging trips. 

Infrasound is a form of low-frequency sound, inaudible to humans but is ubiquitous in the marine environment.  Microbaroms are a type of infrasound, associated with colliding ocean waves. Such wavy areas are, also, associated with strong winds, which albatrosses depend on to help them fly efficiently. The researchers used GPS trackers to determine the flight paths of 89 wandering albatrosses breeding in the Crozet Islands archipelago, Southern Ocean, over the course of their foraging trips to sea, which can last up to a month. ::::ω::::

|| Readmore at thehumanion.com/Medicine.htm ||   reginehumanicsfoundation.com || 141023 ||

 

 

 

 

|| Bees Struggle to Find Flowers Because of Air Pollution ||

 

 

|| Wednesday: September 20: 2023 || ά. A new Study has found that air pollution is preventing pollinators finding flowers because it degrades the scent. This Study found that ozone substantially changes the size and scent of floral odour plumes given off by flowers and that it reduced honeybees' ability to recognise odours by up to 90% from just a few metres away.

Ground-level ozone typically forms when nitrogen oxide emissions from vehicles and industrial processes react with volatile organic compounds, emitted from vegetation in the presence of sunlight. These findings suggest that ozone is likely to be having a negative impact on wildflower abundance and crop yields. International research has already established that ozone has a negative impact on food production because it damages plant growth.

Professor Christian Pfrang from the University of Birmingham, who collaborated on the research, said, “Our Study provides robust evidence that the changes due to ground-level ozone on floral scent cause pollinators to struggle to carry out their crucial role in the natural environment, also, with implications for food security.”

Dr Ben Langford, an atmospheric scientist at UKCEH, who led the Study, said, "Some 75% of our food crops and nearly 90% of wild flowering plants depend, to some extent, upon animal pollination, particularly, by insects. Therefore, understanding what adversely affects pollination and how, is essential to helping us preserve the critical services that we rely upon for production of food, textiles, bio-fuels and medicines, for example.

The researchers used a 30-m wind tunnel at Surrey University to monitor how the size and shape of odour plumes changed in the presence of ozone. As well as, decreasing the size of the odour plume the scientists found that the scent of the plume changed substantially as certain compounds reacted away much faster than others.

Honeybees were trained to recognise the same odour blend and then exposed to the new, ozone-modified odours. Pollinating insects use floral odours to find flowers and learn to associate their unique blend of chemical compounds with the amount of nectar it provides, allowing them to locate the same species in the future.

The research showed that towards the centre of plumes, 52% of honeybees recognised an odour at six metres, decreasing to 38% at 12m. At the edge of plumes, which degraded more quickly, 32% of honeybees recognised a flower from six metres away and just a tenth of the insects from 12m away.

The Study indicates that ozone could, also, affect insects’ other odour-controlled behaviours, such as, attracting a mate. The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation and was published in the journal Environmental Pollution.s

Professor Christian Pfrang said, "We know that air pollution has a detrimental effect on human health, bio-diversity and the climate but, now we can see how it prevents bees and other pollinating insects from carrying out their key job. This should act as a wake-up call to take action on air pollution and help safeguard food production and bio-diversity for the future."

The research was conducted by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the University of Birmingham, University of Reading, University of Surrey and the University of Southern Queensland. ::::ω::::

|| Readmore at thehumanion.com/Medicine.htm ||   reginehumanicsfoundation.com || 210923 ||

 

 

2020: One of the Three Warmest Years on Record: World Meteorological Organisation

Right to Free Degree-Level Education and Life-Long Learning