ArticleEcotoxicology (London, England)2019
Acute exposure to urban air pollution impairs olfactory learning and memory in honeybees.
Article in Ecotoxicology (London, England), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Air pollution disproportionately impairs beneficial invertebrates: a meta-analysis.Nature communications · 2024Pooled it
- Never underestimate honeybees: Their exceptionally diverse adaptive strategies.Journal of advanced research · 2026Review
- Air pollution modifies colonisation factors in beneficial symbiont Snodgrassella and disrupts the bumblebee gut microbiome.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Poor air quality raises mortality in honey bees, a concern for all pollinators.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
- Smarter in the city? Lizards from urban and semi-natural habitats do not differ in a cognitive task in two syntopic species.Current zoology · 2024Article
- Urbanization-driven environmental shifts cause reduction in aminopeptidase N activity in the honeybee.Conservation physiology · 2024Article
- Analysis of comb-gnawing behavior in Apis cerana cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2024Article
- Article
- Concurrent anthropogenic air pollutants enhance recruitment of a specialist parasitoid.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Effects of air pollution exposure on social behavior: a synthesis and call for research.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
While the ecological effects of pesticides have been well studied in honeybees, it is unclear to what extent other anthropogenic contaminants such as air pollution may also negatively affect bee cognition and behaviour. To answer this question, we assessed the impacts of acute exposure to four ecologically relevant concentrations of a common urban air pollutant-diesel generated air pollution on honeybee odour learning and memory using a conditioned proboscis extension response assay. The proportion of bees that successfully learnt odours following direct air pollution exposure was significantly lower in bees exposed to low, medium and high air pollutant concentrations, than in bees exposed to current ambient levels. Furthermore, short- and long-term odour memory was significantly impaired in bees exposed to low medium and high air pollutant concentrations than in bees exposed to current ambient levels. These results demonstrate a clear and direct cognitive cost of air pollution. Given learning and memory play significant roles in foraging, we suggest air pollution will have increasing negative impacts on the ecosystem services bees provide and may add to the current threats such as pesticides, mites and disease affecting colony fitness.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.