ArticleiScience2025
Weak anthropogenic electric fields affect honeybee foraging.
Article in iScience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The sensory ecology of caterpillars.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Aerial electroreception, the detection of airborne electric fields (E-fields), is an emerging sensory system in arthropods, including bees, which can use floral E-fields as foraging cues. However, the influence of anthropogenic E-fields on these interactions remains underexplored. Through field experiments in urban meadows, we demonstrate that weak anthropogenic E-fields, including alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) fields, significantly alter honeybee floral landing behaviors. AC and positive DC fields reduced landings by 71% and 53%, respectively, whereas negative DC fields had no statistically significant impact. Measurements of E-fields near high-voltage transmission lines revealed persistent field strengths comparable to those used experimentally, spanning tens of meters at heights relevant for bee foraging. These findings underscore the potential for anthropogenic E-fields to affect and potentially disrupt plant-pollinator interactions, threatening pollination efficiency, a cornerstone of agriculture and biodiversity. Our study highlights the need for advancing research on the ecological impacts of electric pollution.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.