Consequences of anthropogenic volatile organic compounds on insect pollination in urban areas

Insect-mediated pollination is a crucial mutualism between angiosperms and insects, responsible for maintaining the majority of sexual reproduction for flowering plants. However, in urban ecosystems, there are general trends of decline in plant-pollinator signaling, pollinator specialization, and pollen dispersal. The ability of arthropods to successfully pollinate plants is challenged by aspects of the urban environment, chief among them high levels of pollution. Urban pollutants can affect a pollinator’s ability to locate floral olfactory cues, potentially disrupting communication between plants and their pollinators. Despite their near-ubiquity in urban areas, anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (aVOCs) have received less attention than heavy metals in ecological studies on plant-pollinator interactions. These contaminants are byproducts of various industrial activities, including oil refining, chemical manufacturing, and chemical storage. Plants uptaking contaminated groundwater via roots can also uptake aVOCs, allowing the compounds to enter the food web. The introduction of human synthesized aVOCs has the potential to disturb plant-pollinator interactions, especially for species relationships that rely heavily on floral olfactory cues. Using field observations, I examined the effects of aVOC contaminants on pollination in Detroit, Michigan, a city polluted with aVOCs. I observed the community of pollinating insects visiting flowers, the amount of time pollinators spent at each flower, and pollinator behaviors displayed near flowers when plants are growing at aVOC polluted versus non-polluted sites. Preliminary results suggest that pollinators spend more time at plants with higher concentrations of aVOCs in the flowers. Ultimately, this project assesses changes to plant-pollinator mutualisms in polluted versus non-polluted urban environments.