Dicamba
Questions
How much is a lot of drift? Is 1% really a lot of drift? I guess what i am really asking is how much is really being drifted when it drifts in a non simulated way. For example these test were done at rates between .1 and 1 %, but what if the average of all natural drift was 2%? Or 3...
How often does this happen?
Flowering
Pollinator Visitation
Pollen
Less plentiful due to flowers produced, but same protein/nutritional value
Less frequent
Figure 2
Hard to see but this figure shows the pollen protein concentration of Eupatorium perfoliatum when exposed to the different drift rates.
Figure 3
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This figure shows the over all decrease of pollinator visitation as drift rates become higher
Figure 1
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Show delayed flowering if flowered at all. This increases as dose exposure amount increases
Pollinator visitation is in part reduced because of flowering occurring later and there being less abundant flowers over all. My question then is does the dicamba have a direct effect on pollinator visitation or is it just indirect by reducing possible food sources?
Definitely seems like this might be a out there question, but some plants have shown they can warn other plants in the area of a predator (insect) and they will defend themselves before they are injured. My question is has there been an instance of this behavior with herbicides/can crops sprayed with drift send a signal that effects nearby plants that were not directly exposed?
I wonder why the pollen exposed to just a little bit (.56) seems to have a slightly higher protein concentration while the 0 exposed and more exposed (while yes not much less) have less protein concentration?