More trees means healthier bees, new study on air pollution shows - Mongabay.com

• Scientists analyzed levels of chemical pollutants in native jataí bees across eight landscapes in Brazil’s São Paulo state.
• They found that in landscapes with more vegetation, the bees had fewer pollutants, at lower levels, indicating that the plants act as a filter and protective barrier
• The findings add to the growing scientific evidence about the importance of afforestation in urban areas, including creating ecological corridors to connect separate landscapes.
• Air pollution is the world’s top driver of illness and death from chronic noncommunicable diseases.

Human-caused air pollution in Brazil’s São Paulo state is taking its toll on native bees, but the presence of plants can help ameliorate those effects, a new study shows.

Researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) and São Paulo State University (UNESP) studied jataí bees (Tetragonisca angustula) as bioindicators of environmental quality — proverbial canaries in the coal mine — to confirm a direct relationship between the amount of vegetation and air pollution.

Plants act as a filter and a protective barrier, and the larger the green area in a given region, the lower the levels of pollutants in the environment and, consequently, in the bees, the study found. The findings have important implications, given that bees are the main pollinators in the animal kingdom, responsible for pollinating 75% of all farmed plants worldwide.

The study measured accumulated levels of 21 chemical elements in the tissues of...

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