A team of scientists has discovered that honey bees can produce as much atmospheric electrical charge as a storm cloud, showing that some living things can modify atmospheric electricity and shape weather phenomena.
Scientists came to this conclusion after measuring the electric fields near the swarms of these types of bees. Details were published Monday in the journal iScience. The study recalls that atmospheric electricity contributes to configuring meteorological phenomena, helps insects find food and lifts spiders into the air so that they migrate great distances.
«We always looked at how physics influenced biology, but at some point we realized that biology could also influence physics», explains Ellard Hunting, a biologist at the University of Bristol and first author of the work. That’s why, «we wanted to know how different organisms use the static electric fields that are practically everywhere in the environment», clarifies. Like most living things, bees carry an innate electrical charge.
Development of the study of honey bees
To do the study, the team found that bee swarms vary atmospheric electricity between 100 and 1,000 volts per meter. From that information, they developed a model that can predict the influence of other insect species. “How insect swarms influence atmospheric electricity depends on their density and size”says Liam O’Reilly, a biologist at the University of Bristol and co-author of the research.
A) Yes, «we calculated the influence of locusts on atmospheric electricity because, since they form swarms on a biblical scale -460 square miles in size and 80 million locusts in less than a square mile- their influence is probably much greater than that of bees».
“We recently discovered that biology and static electric fields are intimately linked, and that there are many unsuspected links that can exist at different spatial scales, from soil microbes and plant-pollinator interactions to insect swarms and perhaps , the global electrical circuit»Ellard Hunting concludes.
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Reference article: https://efeverde.com/insectos-carga-electrica-atmosferica/
