AI summary & topic connections
Submits excerpts from studies on honeybee pollination and eel migration, including both positive findings and a small laboratory study finding no movement effect. Questions whether exposure differences explain disagreement.
- Environmental effects: “honeybees”
- Power lines, wiring & solar: “sub-sea AC power cable”
- Proposed biological mechanisms: “heat-shock proteins”
- Research & federal duties: “The smaller scale lab experiment shows no influence”
ORIGINAL COMMENT · UNEDITED TEXT
Here are studied on how eel and honeybees are affected by EMF.
Honeybees:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10181175/
"We assessed the effect that electromagnetic field (EMF) exerts on honeybees’ pollination efficiency using field and laboratory experiments. First, we measured levels of gene and protein expression in metabolic pathways involved in stress and behavioral responses elicited by EMF. Second, we assessed the effect of EMF on honeybee behavior and seed production by the honeybee-pollinated California poppy and, lastly, by measuring the consequences of pollination failure on plants’ community richness and abundance. EMF exposure exerted strong physiological stress on honeybees as shown by the enhanced expression of heat-shock proteins and genes involved in antioxidant activity and affected the expression levels of behavior-related genes. Moreover, California poppy individuals growing near EMF received fewer honeybee visits and produced fewer seeds than plants growing far from EMF. Last, we found a hump-shaped relationship between EMF and plant species richness and plant abundance. Our study provides conclusive evidence of detrimental impacts of EMF on honeybee’s pollination behavior, leading to negative effects on plant community."
Below are two studies on eels. The larger scale study in a natural setting with a sea cable indicates an influence. The smaller scale lab experiment shows no influence. Maybe the voltage or cable difference?
Eel study 1:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230165374_Sub-sea_power_cables_and_migration_behaviour_of_the_European_eel
"Abstract
Coded acoustic tags and an array with moored receivers were used to study the effect of a sub-sea AC power cable on migrating European eel, Anguilla anguilla (L.) in the Baltic Sea. Sixty eels were tagged and the migration speed was measured in a strait with a 130 kV AC power cable. Observed swimming speed over the ground was corrected for advection by the water current. Eel swimming speed was significantly lower around the cable than both north and south of the cable. No details on the behaviour during passage over the cable were possible and possible physiological mechanisms explaining the phenomenon are unknown. Further work is needed to understand the nature of the effect."
Eel study 2:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-marine-freshwater-science-vol-6-8-effects-ac-magnetic/
" There was no evidence of a difference in movement due to the MF nor observations of startle or other obvious behavioural changes associated with the magnetic fields. Level of movement decreased as the experiments progressed and increased with eel size. Eel passage through coils was unaffected by whether or not they were activated. In applying these results it must be kept in mind that the sample size was small, nocturnal behaviour was not tested and the field strengths were lower than might be encountered in the wild in some situations."
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