The blanket of pollutants that seems to have found permanence in the air of India’s cities is not just taking its toll on human health. Pollutants are causing behavioural changes, irregular heartbeats, immunological and genetic changes in the giant Asian honeybee, which leads to lower survival rates, shows a study by researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences.
The study suggests that urban air pollution may adversely affect other critical pollinators and could have worrisome implications, not only on urban forest landscapes but also on agriculture in peri-urban and rural areas.
The paper, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, United States, observed physiological, morphological and expressions of genetic characteristics of 1,820 wild bees (Apis dorsata) in Bengaluru over the past four years.
The giant Asian honeybee is…