Pollination in the Anthropocene: a Moth Can Learn Ozone-Altered Floral Blends.

ABSTRACT: Insect pollination is essential to many unmanaged and agricultural systems and as such is a key element in food production. However, floral scents that pollinating insects rely on to locate host plants may be altered by atmospheric oxidants, such as ozone, potentially making these cues less attractive or unrecognizable to foraging insects and decreasing pollinator efficacy. We demonstrate that levels of tropospheric ozone commonly found in many rural areas are sufficient to disrupt the innate attraction of the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta to the odor of one of its preferred flowers, Nicotiana alata. However, we further find that visual navigation together with associative learning can offset this disruption. Foraging moths that initially find an ozone-altered floral scent unattractive ca

SUBMITTER: Cook B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7547994 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature