WASHINGTON: Researchers have found high concentrations of aluminum in bee populations, suggesting contamination by the silver-gray metal could be partially responsible for the insect’s decline.
Aluminum is one of the most abundant contaminants in nature. And previous studies have shown bees fail to actively shy away from aluminum-tainted flower pollen. Researchers hypothesized that significant amounts of aluminum might result in neurological problems among the bees — an inability to forage, or find one’s way back to the colony.
To see if bees were accumulating high amounts of aluminum over the course of their lifecycle, researchers in England collected pupae from colonies of naturally foraging bumblebees and sent them off to be tested.
Lab scientists at the University of Keele found the adolescent bumblebees to be heavily contaminated — just as the researchers at the University of Sussex had suspected.
Aluminum counts ranged from 13 parts per million to nearly 200 parts per million, with the smallest pupae hosting the highest concentrations. For perspective, an aluminum concentration of just 3 parts per million in human brain tissue can prove fatal.
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