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Post by ZandraJoi on Mar 14, 2024 10:40:41 GMT -5
www.naturalawakenings.com/2024/02/29/482095/self-pollinating-wildflowers-worry-scientists"The global insect population is estimated to be declining at a rate of up to 2 percent per year due to a combination of climate change, habitat loss, pesticide use and human activity. That decline includes pollinators such as bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and wasps. Almost 90 percent of flowering plants depend entirely, or in part, on animal pollination. According to a study published in the journal New Phytologist, researchers in France have found that wildflowers in a meadow near Paris have increasingly adapted to self-fertilization. They compared pansies grown from seeds harvested from 1992 to 2001 to pansies grown today, specifically examining their genetic and physical differences, and evaluating which pansies bumblebees preferred. Finding that today’s pansies are smaller, make less nectar and are less attractive to bumblebees, the scientists concluded that the flowers had increased self-pollination by 27 percent. While this rapid adaptation may be a win for the flowers, it could exacerbate the decline in insects, which are a major food source for other animals and are integral to natural decomposition processes. The scientists believe there is an urgent need to further investigate this pattern and to evaluate the possibility of reversing the process." My notes: While we may dislike insects, they ARE needed. Self-pollinating is great for the flowers, per this article, but then the insects are not attracted.
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Post by Bob on Mar 24, 2024 18:00:50 GMT -5
Some insects are needed. But why mosquitoes? lol
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Post by ZandraJoi on Mar 26, 2024 19:25:20 GMT -5
Some insects are needed. But why mosquitoes? lol Good point lol Mosquitoes DO become a food source for other creatures such as bats.
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