Researchers from the University of Southampton and University of Reading found that diesel fumes may be impairing bees' olfactory abilities needed to find food. In a new study, toxic nitrous oxide (NOx) from diesel exhausts was found to have impacts on bees' smell sense far greater than previously believed.

NOx is a formed by diesel machines and is hazardous to human health. In the past, NOx has also been demonstrated to mix up the olfactory abilities of bees, which is their primary tool for sniffing out the flowers they need for food.

At present, the population of bees has seen a tremendous decline in North America and Europe, probably because of various factors including disease, inadequate nutrition, loss of habitat, exposure to insecticides and pollution. Diesel may also contribute to this drop in population because the researchers of the current study found that diesel fumes swiftly diminish floral volatiles, which is an essential tool for honey bees to recognize flowers.

In the study, the authors exposed eight of the most typical floral volatiles to diesel exhaust so as to examine whether or not diesel fumes have an impact on the relationship of plants and bees with respect to volatile mediation.

The findings of the study showed that five out of eleven compounds in floral odors may be chemically modified if exposed to NOx gases from diesel fumes.

Dr. Robbie Girling, the study lead author from the University of Reading said that their team did not think that vehicle exhausts is the primary reason for the plummeting of bee population but now their findings suggest that its effects may be worse than previously believed.

Girling also said that humans depend on bees and other pollinators for food yet they have paid the insects with habitat damage, climate change, pollution and insecticides. "This work highlights that pollution from dirty vehicles is not only dangerous to people's health, but could also have an impact on our natural environment and the economy," he added.

"It is becoming clear that bees are at risk from a range of stresses from neonicitinoid insecticides through to varroa mites," said professor Guy Poppy, co-author of the study, from Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton. He added that their study emphasizes that the levels of vehicle emissions that affect air quality could be contributing to the stress.

The study was published in the Journal of Chemical Ecology on Sept. 30, 2015.

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