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Industrial agriculture, with its heavy use of chemical pesticides, pollutes our water and soil and leads to loss of habitats and biodiversity, according to a Greenpeace report. With almost one in four (24.5%) vulnerable or endangered species in the EU being threatened by agricultural effluents, including the use of pesticides and fertilizers, species survival and crucial ecosystem services, like pollination, are at risk. Political and financial support is urgently needed to shift from chemical-intensive, damaging agricultural methods, to sustainable ecological farming practices. In Europe, a catastrophic decline of insects was signaled by the "IUCN Task Force on Systemic Pesticides" in 2015, after analyzing over 800 scientific reports. The impacts can be devastating, as 70 per cent of the 124 major commodity crops directly used for human consumption like apples and rapeseed are dependent on pollination for enhanced seed, fruit, or vegetable production. Dirk Zimmermann, Ecological Farming Campaigner at Greenpeace Germany said: "Europe's dependency on chemical pesticides is nothing short of an addiction. Crops are routinely doused with a variety of chemicals, usually applied multiple times to single crops throughout the whole growing season. Non-chemical alternatives to pest management are already available to farmers but need the necessary political and financial support to go mainstream."

By 2013, the UK breeding farmland bird index had fallen by 55 per cent to a level less than half that of 1970. Four farmland specialists (grey partridge (Perdix perdix), turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur), tree sparrow (Passer montanus) and corn bunting (Miliaria calandra)) have declined by over 85 per cent relative to 1970 levels. In 2013, the UK breeding woodland bird index was 28 per cent lower than its 1970 level. A number of woodland specialists (lesser spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor), lesser redpoll (Acanthis cabaret), spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata), tree pipit (Anthus trivialis), wood warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix), crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) and marsh tit (Poecile palustris)) have declined by over 70 per cent relative to 1970 levels, with willow tit (Parus montanus) and capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) down by more than 90 per cent. The index for wet grassland birds decreased by 53 per cent since 1975. Redshank (Tringa totanus), snipe (Gallinago gallinago) and yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) have declined, by more than 60 per cent, 80 per cent and 95 per cent, respectively. Seabird populations in the UK have fallen by 24 per cent since 1986; this is the lowest level recorded. Blacklegged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) declined by 72 per cent since 1986 and Arctic skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus) declined by 82 percent.

In accordance with a landmark agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed several animals in the U.S. territory of American Samoa for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The animals include two birds, two tropical snails and the only insect-eating bat in Polynesia. “American Samoa is home to incredible wildlife found nowhere else on Earth,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center. The two birds proposed for protection include the friendly ground dove (Alopecoenas stairi) and the mao (Gymnomyza samoensis). The mao is a large, vocal, nectar-eating bird that lives in mature, high-elevation forests — habitat that has almost entirely disappeared on the Samoan archipelago due to logging and cyclone damage. The friendly ground dove also faces destruction of its tropical forest habitat and, like many ground-nesting birds in American Samoa, egg predation by nonnative rats. The Pacific sheath-tailed bat (Emballonura semicaudata) once numbered as many as 11,000 in American Samoa, but a 2008 survey found none. The two snails proposed for protection — the sisi snail and the Tutuila tree snail — are both threatened by the nonnative, predatory rosy wolf snail, introduced to Tutuila Island in 1977. Despite the Tutuila tree snail’s prolific reproduction — adults are believed to live for five years and give birth about every 20 days — the population faces decline.

Queen health is crucial to colony survival of social bees. Recently, queen failure has been proposed to be a major driver of managed honey bee colony losses, yet few data exist concerning effects of environmental stressors on queens. Here we demonstrate for the first time that exposure to field-realistic concentrations of neonicotinoid pesticides during development can severely affect queens of western honey bees (Apis mellifera). In pesticide-exposed queens, reproductive anatomy (ovaries) and physiology (spermathecal-stored sperm quality and quantity), rather than flight behaviour, were compromised and likely corresponded to reduced queen success (alive and producing worker offspring). This study highlights the detriments of neonicotinoids to queens of environmentally and economically important social bees, and further strengthens the need for stringent risk assessments to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services that are vulnerable to these substances.

Whether through adverse changes to their natural environment or hunting and over-persecution, some of Scotland’s best-loved animals may not be around for much longer. Using figures provided by Scottish Natural Heritage, we look at a diverse list of species who are suffering low numbers in Scotland’s wilds.

Farmland is home to hundreds of plant and thousands of animal species, many of which are highly dependent on each other forming a complex food web. This was first revealed by our early work on the grey partridge in Sussex. The population of grey partridge was partially dependent on the survival rate of the chicks, which in turn depended on them sourcing enough protein-rich insects. The insects that were most important to the chicks were largely weed-feeding species, and as a consequence, insect abundance was controlled by the management of the crop, but especially by the levels of herbicide inputs. Thus, herbicides were identified as causing an indirect effect on the number of insects within the crop, but also ultimately on the population of grey partridge. Herbicides also reduce the abundance of vegetation and weed seed that are important food sources for insects, birds and small mammals. The indirect effects of pesticides are now a recognised phenomena and along with direct effects are considered responsible for the decline of many other farmland birds because all of them, with the exception of pigeons and doves, feed their young insects during the first few weeks. Autoecological studies have helped to identify the causes behind the decline of some farmland bird species, such as those conducted on grey partridge, corn bunting and yellowhammer. These revealed a strong relationship between invertebrate food availability during breeding and breeding success and this was consequently linked to population change. The majority of other farmland birds also feed their chicks invertebrates because they provide the necessary protein for growth and the energy to resist chilling.

In recent years, an intense debate has been generated about the environmental risks posed by neonicotinoids, a group of widely-used, neurotoxic insecticides. When these systemic compounds are applied to seeds, low concentrations are subsequently found in the nectar and pollen of the crop, which are then collected and consumed by bees. Here we demonstrate that current focus on exposure to pesticides via the crop overlooks an important factor – throughout spring and summer, mixtures of neonicotinoids are also found in the pollen and nectar of wildflowers growing in arable field margins, at concentrations that are sometimes even higher than those found in the crop. Indeed the large majority (97%) of neonicotinoids brought back in pollen to honey bee hives in arable landscapes was from wildflowers, not crops. Both previous and ongoing field studies have been based on the premise that exposure to neonicotinoids would only occur during the blooming period of flowering crops and that it may be diluted by bees also foraging on untreated wildflowers. Here, we show that exposure is likely to be higher and more prolonged than currently recognized due to widespread contamination of wild plants growing near treated crops.

In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced that the tricolored blackbird (Agelaius tricolor) may qualify for federal Endangered Species Act protection. The Center petitioned to protect tricolored blackbirds under both the federal and California Endangered Species Acts after dramatic declines of nesting colonies due to loss of wetlands and native grasslands, shooting, pesticide use and mass destruction of nests through mowing and harvest of crops the birds use for nesting in California. “Tricolored blackbirds once formed massive nesting colonies of millions of birds in California’s Central Valley but are now suffering declines comparable to the extinction trajectory of the passenger pigeon,” said the Center’s Jeff Miller. “Endangered Species Act protection is needed to safeguard their vulnerable breeding colonies, especially since the state of California has inexplicably delayed protection for tricoloreds despite warnings by biologists that we could lose this species entirely.” Comprehensive statewide surveys found only 395,000 tricolored blackbirds in 2008, followed by a decline to 259,000 in 2011 and only 145,000 in 2014 — the smallest population ever recorded.