{"id":31746,"date":"2025-10-01T08:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T07:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/?p=31746"},"modified":"2025-10-01T08:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T07:54:15","slug":"air-pollution-is-silently-decimating-pollinators-but-barely-harms-pests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2025\/10\/01\/air-pollution-is-silently-decimating-pollinators-but-barely-harms-pests\/","title":{"rendered":"Air pollution is silently decimating pollinators \u2013 but barely harms pests"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”31748″ img_size=”large”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Winner of the Research Output Prize 2025 \u2013 Agriculture, Food & Health<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>James Ryalls, Senior Research Fellow in Sustainable Land Management, explains how air pollution disproportionately harms beneficial insects, threatening biodiversity and food security.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine a world without the hum of bees pollinating flowers, or without tiny wasps keeping garden pests in check. These heroes of nature are vital to our ecosystems and food security. They pollinate over 70% of global crops, contributing up to $577 billion annually to the global economy<\/a>, and save farmers money by reducing the need for chemical pesticides. But an invisible threat is undermining their work: air pollution.<\/p>\n

We’ve long known that smog harms human health, causing respiratory issues and heart disease. Plants suffer too, with pollutants like ozone stunting growth and reducing yields. However, the broad impact on different invertebrate groups has been unclear \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n

In our recent study<\/a> published in Nature Communications<\/em>, my team and I revealed that air pollution hits economically beneficial invertebrates \u2013 including bees, moths and other pollinators \u2013 hardest, while pests often escape unscathed. This imbalance threatens biodiversity and food systems, even at pollution levels deemed “safe.” Recent studies suggest these effects are worsening over time, even as some pollutants decline in certain regions.<\/p>\n

What we did<\/h2>\n

To understand air pollution\u2019s impact, we conducted a meta-analysis \u2013 essentially a “study of studies.” We analysed 120 studies from 19 countries, including the United States, China and Australia, yielding 877 data points across more than 40 invertebrate families. We examined how key air pollutants, including ozone (O\u2083), nitrogen oxides (NOx<\/sub>), sulphur dioxide (SO\u2082) and particulate matter (PM), affect invertebrates\u2019 survival, reproduction, feeding and their ability to find food or hosts.<\/p>\n

We grouped invertebrates by their roles and feeding strategies: for example, are they beneficial (pollinators, natural pest regulators or detritivores \u2013 nature\u2019s recyclers that break down organic matter) or pests (chewing caterpillars or fluid-feeding aphids)? We also noted the plants they interacted with and pollution levels. Using advanced statistical models, we calculated performance changes in polluted versus clean air, ensuring robust results by accounting for study biases.<\/p>\n

Key findings \u2013 beneficial bugs bear the brunt<\/h2>\n

Overall, air pollution reduces beneficial invertebrate performance by 31% compared with clean air. Pollinators like bees, natural pest regulators like parasitoid wasps, and detritivores see drops of 21\u201339%. Their searching efficiency, crucial for finding flowers or prey, drops by a third on average. In contrast, pest performance remains unchanged or even improves slightly for some groups \u2013 for example, borers (insects whose larvae tunnel inside plant stems and roots).<\/p>\n

Breaking it down by pollutant, we found that:<\/p>\n