Boerenlandvogels – WP

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  • Neonicotinoids and bees: Despite EU moratorium, insecticides still detectable

    Since 2013, a European Union (EU) moratorium has restricted the application of three neonicotinoids to crops that attract bees because of the harmful effects they are deemed to have on these insects. Yet researchers from the CNRS, INRA, and the Institut de l’Abeille (ITSAP) have just demonstrated that residues of these insecticides — and especially of imidacloprid — can still be detected in rape nectar from 48% of the plots of studied fields, their concentrations varying greatly over the years. An assessment of the risk posed to bees, based on health agency models and parameters, has revealed that for two out of five years, at least 12% of the fields were sufficiently contaminated to kill 50% of the bees and bumblebees foraging on them. The researchers’ findings are published in Science of the Total Environment (28 November 2019).

    The role of neonicotinoids in the decline of bees led to a 2013 EU moratorium limiting the use of three insecticides — clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam — on crops attracting pollinating bees. In September 2018, this was followed by a total ban on their application to any outdoor crop in France. Yet neonicotinoids are frequently detected on wildflowers [1] and untreated crops, [2] suggesting their dispersion within the environment after agricultural use.

    To investigate this further, researchers from the Chizé Centre for Biological Studies (CNRS / La Rochelle University); INRA units Abeilles, Paysages, Interactions et Systèmes de Culture (APIS) and Abeilles et Environnement (AE); and ITSAP looked for and quantified neonicotinoid residues in nectar from 291 plots (536 samples) of winter rape for the five years following adoption of the moratorium, from 2014 to 2018.

    Their first observation was that the three neonicotinoids in question could be found in the samples. Imidacloprid in particular was detected each year, in 43% of the analysed samples (corresponding to 48% of the fields), with no downward trend over the years but great variation between them. In 2016, over 90% of the sampled plots tested positive, versus 5% in 2015. Residue levels depend on the type of soil and are higher when there is more precipitation, but they do not appear to be directly linked to the spatial or temporal proximity of potentially treated crops. Though 92% of the positive samples only contained 0.1 to 1 ng/mL of imidacloprid, maximum concentrations in some cases exceeded those reported for treated plots, reaching as high as 70 ng/mL.

    Using this data, mortality assessments based on health agency models and parameters suggest a non-negligible risk for pollinating bees. For domestic bees, risk peaked in 2014 and 2016, when around 50% of the pollinators were likely to die from imidacloprid in 12% of the plots studied. In those years, 10% to 20% of the plots exhibited a level of contamination associated with the same risk of death for bumblebees and solitary bees. These findings indicate that persistent use of neonicotinoids with certain crops in open fields threatens bees and pollinators frequenting other, untreated crops. They confirm that imidacloprid residues remain in the environment, and spread, even turning up in rape nectar, even though neonicotinoids have not been applied to rape crops since 2013. They also justify the reinforcement of pesticide controls by the total ban on the use of neonicotinoids for any outdoor crop in France, adopted in September 2018.

    This study relied on access to the Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sèvre, a unique CNRS site in west central France (Deux-Sèvres, Nouvelle-Aquitaine).

    1. Botías C, David A, Horwood J, Abdul-Sada A, Nicholls E, Hill E, Goulson D. Neonicotinoid residues in wildflowers, a potential route of chronic exposure for bees. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2015;49(21):12731-12740. doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b03459.
    2. Henry M, Cerrutti N, Aupinel P, Decourtye A, Gayrard M, Odoux JF, Pissard A, Rüger C, Bretagnolle V. Reconciling laboratory and field assessments of neonicotinoid toxicity to honeybees. Proc. Biol. Sci. 2015;282(1819). doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.2110.

    Source: Science News, 27 Nov 2019
    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191127121340.htm

  • Risks associated with Succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicides

    Succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor’ (SDHI) fungicides are used against fungi and mould. On the basis of a report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published in April 2017, the French NGO ‘Générations futures’ established that boscalid, a very frequently used SDHI, was the most frequent pesticide residue found in food samples tested in Europe. However, the way SDHIs work is atypical and is not picked up by European toxicity tests. SDHI block respiration in fungus cells, inhibiting the activity of the enzyme SDH (succinate dehydrogenase), but have the same effect on bodily cells in earthworms and humans.

    Blocking this enzyme leads to a build-up of the succinate molecule, which modifies the structure of DNA, but without creating mutations, as most carcinogens do. Given that these epigenetic anomalies have not yet been tested, they cannot be detected before the pesticides are marketed. In 2014, 70% of French wheat fields had been treated with these pesticides. Since then, however, French researchers from INSERM, CNRS and INRA have warned against the dangers associated with SDHI. Taking account of the above, is the Commission planning to review the European-wide approval of the SDHI active substances?

    Source:
    Parlamentary Question for written answer E-006368-18
    to the Commission of 19 December 2018
    Rule 130
    Mireille D’Ornano (EFDD)
    Original language of question: French
    https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-8-2018-006368_EN.html

  • Car ‘splatometer’ tests reveal huge decline in number of insects

    Two scientific studies of the number of insects splattered by cars have revealed a huge decline in abundance at European sites in two decades. The research adds to growing evidence of what some scientists have called an “insect apocalypse”, which is threatening a collapse in the natural world that sustains humans and all life on Earth. A third study shows plummeting numbers of aquatic insects in streams.

    The survey of insects hitting car windscreens in rural Denmark used data collected every summer from 1997 to 2017 and found an 80% decline in abundance. It also found a parallel decline in the number of swallows and martins, birds that live on insects. The second survey, in the UK county of Kent in 2019, examined splats in a grid placed over car registration plates, known as a “splatometer”. This revealed 50% fewer impacts than in 2004. The research included vintage cars up to 70 years old to see if their less aerodynamic shape meant they killed more bugs, but it found that modern cars actually hit slightly more insects.

    “This difference we found is critically important, because it mirrors the patterns of decline which are being reported widely elsewhere, and insects are absolutely fundamental to food webs and the existence of life on Earth,” said Paul Tinsley-Marshall from Kent Wildlife Trust. “It’s pretty horrendous.”

    “Most naturalists who are out in nature have seen this coming over a long time,” said Anders Pape Møller from the Paris-Sud University in France, who has been visiting the Danish study area for 50 years. “My colleagues remember going on summer holidays as children and their parents had to stop their car to clean the windscreen so they could continue. This is certainly not a problem any more.”

    Insect population collapses have been reported in Germany and Puerto Rico, and the first global scientific review, published in February 2019, said widespread declines threatened to cause a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”. Insects pollinate three-quarters of crops and another recent study showed widespread losses of such insects across Britain.

    The survey in Kent analysed nearly 700 car journeys reported by volunteers from June to August 2019. The bug splats on the registration plate were counted to calculate the number of impacts per kilometre. This was 50% lower than an RSPB survey using the same methodology found in 2004.

    “The most surprising thing was how rarely we actually found anything on the plate at all,” said Tinsley-Marshall. This was despite the data showing that modern cars hit more bugs, perhaps because older models push a bigger layer of air – and insects – over the vehicle.

    The Danish research, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, used data from an average of 65 car journeys a year on the same stretch of road and at the same speed between 1997 and 2017. Møller took account of the time of day, temperature, wind speed and date of the journey and found an 80% decline in insect abundance over the 21-year period. Checks using insect nets and sticky traps showed the same trend.

    Source: The Guardian, 12 Feb 2020
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-splatometer-tests-reveal-huge-decline-number-insects

  • Neonics Are ‘Hollowing Out Ecosystems,’ N.R.D.C. Reports

    Neonicotinoid insecticides, also known as neonics, are doing more than killing bees and other insects in record numbers, according to a report issued last month by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an international environmental advocacy group. Neonics, the council says, are contaminating New York State’s soil and water and “hollowing out ecosystems from the bottom up.”

    Half the population of the United States is exposed to neonics daily, according to “Bigger Than Bees: How Neonics Contaminate Water, Threaten Ecosystems, and Cause Human Health Concerns in New York,” and studies link neonic exposure to potential health hazards.

    The six major neonic chemicals approved for outdoor use in the U.S. appear in thousands of products, according to the advocacy group, including lawn and garden insect sprays, fertilizers, flea and tick treatments for pets and livestock, and agricultural pesticides.

    “Federal and state water testing over the past 15 years has shown that the neonic imidacloprid frequently appears in surface waters throughout the state,” according to the report. “And recent testing on Long Island groundwater found imidacloprid in roughly 30 percent of samples, making it one of the most commonly detected pesticides on the Island.” Test results suggest that the risk of contaminated drinking water in the state may be highest on Long Island and in places that get drinking water from surface water, such as New York City.

    More than 90 percent of the imidacloprid detections in the state exceeded the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s long-term exposure benchmark for harm to aquatic invertebrates, the report adds, and more than 37 percent exceeded the benchmark by 10 times or more.

    Though they are thought to be safer for humans than the older insecticides they replaced, emerging research links neonic exposure to elevated risk of developmental and neurological damage, according to the N.R.D.C., particularly in infants and young children, including malformations of the developing heart and brain and symptoms including memory loss and tremors.

    People are commonly exposed to neonics through food and water, the report states, including fruits, vegetables, and processed foods. Because neonics are absorbed into treated foods, washing does not remove them.

    Among the report’s other revelations: “The typical neonic coating on just one corn seed can contain enough active ingredient to kill a quarter-million bees or more.” And: “Since neonics were first introduced,” in the mid-1990s, “U.S. agriculture has become 48 times more harmful to bees and other insects, with an estimated 92 percent of the total toxic load attributable to neonics alone.”

    Neonics can remain in soil for long periods and are easily carried by rain or watering, the report states, making nontarget plants, which absorb them through their roots, toxic to insects, possibly for years.
    As in other states, the use of neonics in New York has grown dramatically since the mid-1990s, according to the council’s report. The state’s beekeepers have lost more than 40 percent of their colonies nearly every year for the last decade.

    “Future bee losses could jeopardize the state’s pollination-dependent crops, which contribute an estimated $1.2 billion annually to the state’s agricultural economy.” Off the farm, 87.5 percent of flowering plants need pollination by bees and other pollinators to reproduce, the report notes, “so the loss of bees could lead not only to the destruction of the food system as we know it, but also to the collapse of whole ecosystems.”

    Populations of other beneficial insects around the world have experienced sharp declines since the introduction of neonics, the report states, with recent research pointing to their use as a leading cause.

    The N.R.D.C. also links the decline of insects to a commensurate decline in birds, which feed on them. The report references several studies that found a loss of 29 percent of North America’s birds — approximately three billion birds — in the last 50 years. Neonics also harm birds directly: “Eating just one neonic-treated seed is enough to kill some songbirds,” the report states, but nonlethal doses can also damage birds’ immune and reproductive systems.

    The council recommends that state officials ban needless neonic use, which it says provides little to no benefit, impose a moratorium on other outdoor neonic use, establish a framework for addressing and regulating insecticides, empowering the State Department of Environmental Conservation to take protective action if those insecticides are found to have the same harmful qualities as neonics, and investing in better agro-ecological practices that reduce the impacts on environmental and human health.

    Source: The East Hampton Star, February 6, 2020
    https://www.easthamptonstar.com/government/202026/neonics-are-hollowing-out-ecosystems-nrdc-reports

  • Dung beetle populations are collapsing in the Amazon

    A team of scientists from the United Kingdom, Brazil, and New Zealand tracked dung beetles in 30 forest plots scattered throughout the Brazilian state of Pará from 2010 to 2017. In total, they counted more than 14,000 dung beetles from 98 species. They also monitored how effectively the beetles were moving dung out of the plots, and how many seeds they were dispersing.

    In the first year of their study, the researchers counted 8,000 beetles across their plots. In 2016 they counted just 3,700 beetles. In 2017, that number had dropped even further to 2,600. Filipe França, an ecologist at Lancaster University and Embrapa Amazônia Oriental in Brazil and lead author of the new study, said in a statement. “The loss of these hardworking beetles could indicate a wider problem that many mammals living in the forest may have also succumbed. Dung beetles depend on mammal’s poo for nesting and feeding, therefore declines in beetles are likely associated with the loss of mammals.”
    The findings, published in the journal Biotropica earlier this month, are the latest example of the collapse in insect populations worldwide as the world warms and human activities impact ecosystems.

    Source: Yale Environment, Feb 10, 2020
    https://e360.yale.edu/digest/hotter-drier-el-ninos-linked-to-insect-decline-in-the-amazon-study-finds

  • Amphibiensterben: Immer weniger Kröten und Frösche in Bayern

    19 verschiedene Amphibienarten gibt es in Bayern. Zu den Lurchen zählen Frösche, Kröten, Molche, Salamander und Unken. Davon sind jedoch mehr als die Hälfte bedroht. Zehn Arten stehen bereits seit 2003 auf der Roten Liste gefährdeter Amphibien in Bayern: Die Geburtshelferkröte, der Moorfrosch und die Wechselkröte sind vom Aussterben bedroht. Stark gefährdet sind die Gelbbauchunke, der Kammolch, die Knoblauchkröte, die Kreuzkröte und der Laubfrosch. Als gefährdet gelten Feuersalamander und Springfrosch. Auf der Vorwarnliste stehen Grasfrosch und Teichmolch. “Von den 19 Arten weisen zwölf einen Rote-Liste-Gefährdungsstatus auf”, fasst das Bayerische Landesamt für Umwelt (LfU) zusammen.

    Amphibien leben an Land und im Wasser und pendeln auch noch zwischen ihren unterschiedlichen Lebensräumen hin und her. Das wird ihnen zunehmend zum Verhängnis. Lurche sind überwiegend in eher feuchteren Lebensräumen zu finden und wechselwarm: Sie können ihre Körpertemperatur nicht selbstständig konstant halten. Obwohl sie ein körpereigenes Frostschutzmittel besitzen, müssen sie sich vor Kälte schützen. Den Winter verbringen sie deshalb geschützt in Verstecken wie Baumstümpfen, Steinhaufen, Höhlen oder Erdlöchern.

    Quelle: BR24, 28.05.2019
    https://www.br.de/nachrichten/wissen/amphibiensterben-immer-weniger-kroeten-und-froesche-in-bayern,RMTFT75

  • Zahl der von Insekten lebenden Vögel sinkt

    Ob Bachstelze (Motacilla alba), Wiesenpieper (Anthus pratensis) oder Rauchschwalbe (Hirundo rustica): Die Zahl der von Insekten lebenden Vögel ist in den vergangenen 25 Jahren europaweit deutlich zurückgegangen. Laut einer im Fachjournal Conservation Biology veröffentlichten Studie sank sie durchschnittlich um 13 Prozent. Rund die Hälfte aller Vogelarten in Europa ernährt sich von Insekten. Noch erschreckendere Zahlen hatte vor zwei Monaten die Naturschutzorganisation Nabu (Naturschutzbund Deutschland) unter Verweis auf eine Zählung des European Bird Census Council genannt. Danach waren die Feldvögel in den Jahren 1980 bis 2017 europaweit um 56 Prozent zurückgegangen.

    Quelle: Zeit Online, 31.03.19
    https://www.zeit.de/wissen/umwelt/2019-03/umweltschutz-voegel-insekten-monokultur-artenschwund-europa

  • Frogs, salamanders and toads are suffering catastrophic population decline

    Amphibians across the world are experiencing “catastrophic population declines” from a widening range of interacting pathogens, scientists say. Fungal disease chytridiomycosis is thought to have caused the extinction of 90 amphibian species around the world and the marked decline of at least 491 others over the last 20 years. According to Dr Benjamin Scheele, the lead author of a study into chytridiomycosis, it is “the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity attributable to a disease”.

    But now amphibians are also under attack from another pathogen known as the ranavirus, which exists in at least four varieties. In addition scientists have found that there are at least two species of chytridiomycosis, and within these, many different genetic types. Among the 90 species of amphibians wiped out since chytridiomycosis began taking its toll across the world are the golden toad in Costa Rica (Incilius periglenes), the southern gastric-brooding frog of Australia (Rheobatrachus silus), and Arthur’s stubfoot toad (Atelopus arthuri) in Ecuador.

    The rise of these fungal diseases are not only damaging to amphibian populations, but are also harmful to the environment. This is because frogs, salamanders and toads play an important role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, for instance by eating mosquitoes that spread disease.

    Source: The Independent, 20 April 2019
    https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/frog-salamanders-toads-amphibians-extinction-population-fungal-disease-a8879581.html

  • Biologen belegen flächendeckendes Hummelsterben

    In einer Langzeitstudie belegen Forscher einen flächendeckenden und massiven Schwund zahlreicher Hummelarten in Europa und Nordamerika. Dies hat auch Folgen für den Menschen, da Hummeln für die Pflanzenbestäubung ähnlich wichtig sind wie Honigbienen. Sie sind weltweit mit die wichtigsten Helfer in der Landwirtschaft und ohne sie würden ganze Landstriche niemals erblühen.

    In einer Langzeitstudie belegen kanadische und britische Forscher um Peter Soroye von der Universität Ottawa einen flächendeckenden und massiven Rückgang zahlreicher Hummelarten in Europa und Nordamerika. Dieser sei noch größer als bislang bereits angenommen, schreiben sie im Fachjournal Science. Das Ausmaß des Hummelschwundes könne als Vorbote einer Aussterbewelle gedeutet werden, warnen die Biologen. “Wenn der Rückgang in diesem Tempo weitergeht, könnten viele dieser Arten innerhalb weniger Jahrzehnte für immer verschwinden”, sagt Erstautor Soroye.

    Um die Veränderung der Verbreitung und der Artenvielfalt unter Hummeln zu ermitteln, entwarfen die Wissenschaftler eine auf 100 Quadratkilometer genaue Verbreitungskarte für 66 Hummelarten in ganz Europa und Nordamerika. Dazu nutzten sie rund eine halbe Million Datensätze von Beobachtungen aus einem Zeitraum von 1901 bis 2014. Der Abgleich zwischen Verbreitungsgebieten erbrachte ein selbst für die Wissenschaftler überraschend deutliches Ergebnis. “Im Laufe von nur einer Menschengeneration sank die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass ein Ort auf beiden Kontinenten von Hummeln besiedelt ist, um durchschnittlich über 30 Prozent.” In Nordamerika sei die Besiedlungswahrscheinlichkeit heute sogar um fast 50 Prozent niedriger als früher, in Europa seien es 17 Prozent, , analysieren die Autoren.

    Quelle: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 06.02.20
    https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/hummeln-insektensterben-klimawandel-1.4788281

  • Bumblebees are dying across North America and Europe

    Bumblebee populations in North America and Europe have plummeted, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The number of areas populated by bumblebees has fallen 46 percent in North America and 17 percent in Europe. The loss of bumblebee populations is alarming because they play a central role in pollinating many plants, including key crops such as tomatoes and cranberries.

    “Unlike honeybees in North America, which have been brought over from Europe and kept in these colonies, bumblebees are native and evolved with these plants,” said Peter Soroye, a researcher at the University of Ottawa and one of the study’s authors. “So when it comes to these natural landscapes, bumblebees are pretty irreplaceable.”

    The study, which Soroye conducted with colleagues from the University of Ottawa and University College London, compared the observed locations for 66 species of bumblebees between 1901 and 1974 with places where they could be found between 2000 and 2014. They found that nearly half of all regions in North America where bumblebees had been recorded in the earlier period no longer registered bees in the later period.

    It’s unclear whether the bees might recover. Franklin’s bumblebee is a species once found in a narrow region where California and Oregon meet. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed an endangered-species listing for the bee but noted that the listing may not actually happen because it’s unclear whether there are any bees left to protect.

    Source: The Washington Post, Feb 6, 2020
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/02/06/bumblebees-are-vanishing-scientists-blame-climate-change/