Surveys undertaken by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Chemical ecology and the University of Virginia had investigated whether the scent altered by ozone pollutants still attracted their specialist pollinators. Ozone is a reactive oxidant believed to modify the flowers scent. The model species that was used was the tobacco hawkmoth because of it's innate attraction to the floral scent and their visualization. In natural environments the floral scent is altered when the scent migrates downwind of the flower and mixes with the ozone pollutant.
Investigating the hawk moth's attraction to the ozone altered scent was undertaken in a wind tunnel where they had been exposed to both the original and alteredfloral scent. The response exhibited by the hawkmoth was 'shocking' that the strong attraction initially formed between the hawkmoth and floral scent had been lost after it had been ozone altered.
Researchers then assesed numerous ways in which these hawkmoth may learn to recognize the sugar source as a reward whenever they smelt the ozone altered scent. The lead author had discussed "While we anticipated that Manduca sexta could learn new floral scents and hoped that they would be able to learn the polluted floral scent of their host flower, we were amazed to see that Manduca sexta could learn the polluted floral blend in a number of different ways, including learning a polluted scent that was decoupled from a sugar reward. This type of learning, which we were surprised to find in Manduca sexta, could be very important in insects' ability to use learning to cope with their rapidly changing environments,"
A major concern is that these pollinators will take a significant amount of time to learn these altered scents provided a sugar reward where many will die of starvation and birth rates would decline due to these intense pressures. This will then in turn result in a reduction in genetic diversity where they will struggle to form genetics change during harsh conditions. It is likely that other pollinators that rely less on visualization than the hawk moth, will lead to the extinction of the species.
Brynn Cook, Alexander Haverkamp, Bill S. Hansson, T’ai Roulston, Manuel Lerdau, Markus Knaden. Pollination in the Anthropocene: a Moth Can Learn Ozone-Altered Floral Blends. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 2020; DOI: 10.1007/s10886-020-01211-4
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. "Pollination: Air pollution renders flower odors unattractive to moths." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 September 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200904101806.htm>.
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