CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Soon, it may be harder to stop and smell the roses. Something is killing off flower’s sweet smell. Now, we can discover what the culprit is.
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Ah, the sweet smell of flowers can be hard to resist.
“When you go and visit a garden the first temptation you have is to smell a flower,” Jose Fuentes, Ph.D., atmospheric scientist University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., explained.
But hurry up and catch a whiff while you still can. Atmospheric and environmental scientists report that flower’s scents are being destroyed. What’s to blame for the disappearing aromas? Pollution. Fumes from cars and factories are pumping pollutants into the air, which may be destroying flower’s fragrances.
“What we find is that these fragrances only travel one-third of the distance that they used to travel,” Dr. Fuentes said.
Flowers produce scent molecules that travel easily in the air. Pollutants break apart the fragrance molecules, destroying their smell. Our noses will miss the pleasant fragrance, but bee’s depend on it.
“The pollinators are spending more time trying to locate food and less time trying to actually harvest food that they need,” Dr. Fuentes noted.
Wiping out flower scents could have a major impact on bee populations. But we can help bring back the bees and flower smells.
Dr. Fuentes explained, “One specific action that we can take is to really work towards having a very clean environment.”
Flower populations may also diminish because plants need bee’s to pollinate that allows flowers to reproduce. Now, we can make a clean effort for a chance to smell the flowers.
The American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
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