Do microplastics have effects on flower traits relevant to attracting pollinators?
Dedicated experiments in laboratory conditions will be performed to standardize the environmental contest and specifically study the effects of microplastics both on plant flower features and on the foraging behaviour of pollinators.
Different plant species will be grown in soil artificially polluted with increasing concentrations of microplastics, corresponding to the contamination levels found during the field studies.
At the flowering stage, plants will be used for testing the feeding behavior of pollinators (honeybees and bumblebees)
Studying the effects of microplastics on:
plant flower characteristics
Analysis of the general parameters of plant growth and physiology, scent emitted, flower number, colors, and pattern, nectar quantity an quality.
feeding behavior of pollinators
Feeding and foraging preference assays in mescosoms to assess whether the insects change their preferences when plants are grown with microplastics