English

Structural and functional responses of a benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage to pulses of the insecticide imidacloprid were assessed in outdoor stream mesocosms. Imidacloprid pulses reduced invertebrate abundance and community diversity in imidacloprid-dosed streams compared to control streams. These results correlated well with effects of imidacloprid on leaf litter decomposition and feeding rates of Pteronarcys comstocki, a stonefly, in artificial streams. Reductions in oxygen consumption of stoneflies exposed to imidacloprid were also observed in laboratory experiments.

Everyone knows not to eat yellow snow. But what about the seemingly harmless, white fluffy stuff? According to research by Claudia Sheedy of the Lethbridge Research Centre, and others, snow is full of pesticides. Sheedy, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was one of several experts who shared their findings from a variety of studies, including the investigation of pesticides in the snowpack. Sheedy said scientists have been studying and finding pesticides in surface water since about 2006, including pesticides that aren’t even used in Canada.

There is clear evidence for sublethal effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on non-target ecosystem service-providing insects. However, their possible impact on male insect reproduction is currently unknown, despite the key role of sex. Here, we show that two neonicotinoids (4.5 ppb thiamethoxam and 1.5 ppb clothianidin) significantly reduce the reproductive capacity of male honeybees (drones), Apis mellifera. Drones were obtained from colonies exposed to the neonicotinoid insecticides or controls, and subsequently maintained in laboratory cages until they reached sexual maturity.

A NEW strategic conservation plan to stop the decline of black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) in southern Scotland has been launched. The new plan has been funded by project partners the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Lammermuirs Moorland Group, Scottish Borders Council and RSPB Scotland. The long term decline of black grouse in the region has accelerated in recent decades, with numbers falling by 49% and 69% in south west and south east Scotland respectively between 1995/6 and 2005, to an estimated 807 and 257 males.

Saltmarsh sparrows (Ammodramus caudacutus) are the only species of breeding bird found nowhere else but the East Coast of the United States, where they live exclusively in coastal marshes, including several sites in Rhode Island. But the birds are predicted to go extinct within the next 50 years. That’s the unfortunate news reported by University of Connecticut researchers Chris Elphick and Chris Fields earlier this month.

Evening grosbeaks (Coccothraustes vespertinus) are Western birds and were once rare east of the Rocky Mountains. But during the late 1800s, each successive winter found them a little farther east. By 1910 they had reached Rhode Island. For many years evening grosbeaks enjoyed prosperity in the East. However, over the past 50 years evening grosbeak numbers have declined. Scientists have documented a 97 percent decline in Eastern populations. They mostly forage at the tops of tall coniferous trees looking for insects.

We have identified 30 papers from a literature search on PubMed and Google Scholar using the following combined key words of “pollinators”, “honeybee”, “bees”, “pesticides”, or “neonicotinoids”, as of September 30, 2014, and from a cross-reference check of a report made available by European Parliament in preparation to fulfill their regulatory mandate on the issue of protecting pollinators among their membership nations.

Devastating declines of amphibian species around the world are a sign of a biodiversity disaster larger than just frogs, salamanders and their ilk, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley. In a new article published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers argue that substantial die-offs of amphibians and other plant and animal species add up to a new mass extinction facing the planet.

Scientists have found that a newly identified and highly infectious tadpole disease is found in a diverse range of frog populations across the world. The discovery sheds new light on some of the threats facing fragile frog populations, which are in decline worldwide. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, led by the University of Exeter and the Natural History Museum, describes the molecular methods used to test frog tadpoles for a newly identified infectious agent.

Nationally hay meadows are in decline, according to a survey carried out in the 1980s, over 97 per cent of flower rich grasslands have been lost since 1930 and those that remain are decreasing in wildlife value. Northern England was once covered in species rich upland flower meadows and even here it is estimated that only a 1000 ha remain. When a meadow is lost it is not just the flowers that disappear but the hundreds of insects including many species of butterfly and bee that rely on them and even the bats that feed on the insects.