Air pollution makes flower odours unattractive to moths: Study

Researchers claim that high ozone air pollution causes tobacco hawkmoths to lose attraction to the scent of their preferred flowers which has been altered by ozone

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and the University of Virginia, USA, has studied the impact of high ozone air pollution on the chemical communication between flowers and pollinators.

According to the study, that tobacco hawkmoths lost attraction to the scent of their preferred flowers when that scent had been altered by ozone. This oxidizing pollutant thus disturbs the chemical communication between a plant and its pollinator.