Musah Baba Imoro
CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla County, Menglun, 666316, Yunnan Province, P.R. China.
Environ Monit Assess. 2024 Dec 3;197(1):12. doi: 10.1007/s10661-024-13490-5.
Heavy metals and metalloids are ubiquitous and persistent in the environment. Anthropogenic activities, including land use change, industrial emissions, mining, chrome plating, and smelting, escalate their distribution and accumulation in terrestrial ecosystems. Priority metals, including lead, chromium, arsenic, nickel, copper, cadmium, and mercury, pose enormous risks to public health, ecological safety, and biodiversity. The adverse effects of heavy metals on plant-animal interactions, pollen viability, species fitness, richness, and abundance are poorly understood. Hence, this review summarises the critical insights from primary investigations on the key sources of heavy metal pollution, distribution pathways, and their adverse effects on plants and pollinators. This study provides insights into how heavy metals compromise nectar quality, pollen viability, plant-pollinator growth, and reproduction. Biotic pollinators are responsible for approximately 90% of the reproduction of flowering plants. Heavy metals adversely affect pollinators that rely on angiosperms for nectar and pollen. Heavy metals interrupt pollinators' and plants' growth, reproduction, and survival. Evidence showed that bees near gold mines had their olfactory learning performances and head sizes reduced by 36% and 4% due to heavy metals exposure. Cadmium (Cd) interrupts the redox balance, causes oxidative stress, alters gut microbiota, and reduces the survival rate of Apis cerana cerana. Excess Cd exposure reduced the flight capacity, loss of mitochondria, and damaged muscle fibre of Bombus terrestris, while Zn stress reduced egg production and hatchability of Harmonia axyridis. Furthermore, heavy metals alter flower visitation, foraging behaviour, and pollination efficiency.
重金属和类金属在环境中普遍存在且具有持久性。包括土地利用变化、工业排放、采矿、镀铬和冶炼在内的人为活动，加剧了它们在陆地生态系统中的分布和积累。包括铅、铬、砷、镍、铜、镉和汞在内的优先控制金属，对公众健康、生态安全和生物多样性构成巨大风险。重金属对植物与动物相互作用、花粉活力、物种适合度、丰富度和丰度的不利影响，目前还知之甚少。因此，本综述总结了关于重金属污染的主要来源、分布途径及其对植物和传粉者不利影响的初步调查中的关键见解。本研究深入探讨了重金属如何损害花蜜质量、花粉活力、植物 - 传粉者的生长和繁殖。生物传粉者约负责90% 的开花植物繁殖。重金属对依赖被子植物获取花蜜和花粉的传粉者产生不利影响。重金属干扰传粉者和植物的生长、繁殖和生存。有证据表明，金矿附近的蜜蜂由于接触重金属，其嗅觉学习能力和头部大小分别降低了36% 和4%。镉（Cd）会破坏氧化还原平衡，导致氧化应激，改变肠道微生物群，并降低中华蜜蜂的存活率。过量接触镉会降低熊蜂的飞行能力、线粒体损失和肌肉纤维损伤，而锌胁迫会降低异色瓢虫的产卵量和孵化率。此外，重金属会改变访花行为、觅食行为和授粉效率。
