Agricultural pesticide use has contributed significantly to the decline of imperiled species in Canada

Anthropogenic habitat loss is usually cited as the most important cause of recent species’ extinctions. We statistically compared areas in Canada where imperiled species currently occur, versus areas where they have been lost. Using multiple regressions, we relate the numbers of species that had suffered range reductions in an ecoregion to variables that represent present habitat loss, pesticide use and human population density. We find high losses of imperiled species in regions with high proportions of agricultural land cover. However, losses of imperiled species are significantly more strongly related to the proportion of the region treated with agricultural pesticides. The relationship between species losses and area treated with pesticides remains significant after controlling for area in agriculture. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that agricultural pesticide use has contributed significantly to the decline of imperiled species in Canada. Habitat conversion per se may be a less important cause of species declines than how that converted habitat is used.

Source:
Katherine E. Gibbs, Robin L. Mackey, David J. Currie (2009) Diversity and Distributions
15: 242–253
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00543.x/full