Led by scientists from the University of Reading and Nottingham Trent University, the study exposed the sad news that most of the countryside in England and Wales is no longer occupied by hedgehogs, due to changes in farming methods and rising badger populations which eat the prickly animals and much of their food sources. Labelled the first systematic national survey, the shocking results published in the journal, Scientific Reports, showed that numbers are believed to have fallen by 80% since the 1950s.

Die offiziellen Zahlen der Schweizer Fischfang-Statistik sind beunruhigend: Die Fänge in Fliessgewässern (Flüsse und Bäche, ohne Seen) sind seit dem Jahr 2000 um ein Drittel zurückgegangen. Eine grosse Rolle im Zusammenhang mit dem rückläufigen Fischbestand könnten Pestizide aus der Landwirtschaft spielen. Eine Studie des deutschen Helmholz-Zentrums zeigt: Wirkstoffe wie etwa das Insektizid Thiacloprid wirken bereits in geringsten Mengen und bringen Wasserlebewesen zum Verschwinden. Und damit eine wichtige Nahrungsquelle für die Fische.

We evaluated the efects of repeated larval exposure to neonicotinoid insecticide, both in isolation and in combination with strobilurin fungicide, at environmentally relevant doses. The total consumption of the contaminated diet was 23.63 ng fungicide/larvae (pyraclostrobin) and 0.2364 ng insecticide/larvae (clothianidin). The efects on post-embryonic development were evaluated over time. Additionally, we assessed the survival pattern of worker bees after emergence, and the pesticides’ effects on the behavior of newly emerged workers and young workers.

A landmark report by the United Nations’ scientific panel on biodiversity warns that humans are at dire risk unless urgent action is taken to restore the plants, animals and other natural resources they depend on to survive. The report, which was issued in Paris on Monday by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), describes a world where living and future generations of people face the threat of worsening food and water shortages, because of habitat and species loss.

The first ever IUCN Red List assessment has been conducted on all 124 wild coffee species, and the implications of these findings predict a concerning future for global coffee production. The newly published research reveals that 60 per cent of all wild coffee species are under threat of extinction. This includes wild relatives of Coffea arabica, the world’s most widely traded coffee, which are designated as an Endangered species on the Red List, largely due to climate change projections.

Usage of neonicotinoids is common in all agricultural regions of the world but data on environmental contamination in tropical regions is scarce. We conducted a survey of five neonicotinoids in soil, water and sediment samples along gradients from crops fields to protected lowland tropical forest, mangroves and wetlands in northern Belize, a region of high biodiversity value. Neonicotinoid frequency of detection and concentrations were highest in soil (68%) and lowest in water (12%). Imidacloprid was the most common residue reaching a maximum of 17.1 ng/g in soil samples.

Die Idylle der Schweizer Seen täuscht. Die Bestände gewisser Fischarten haben in den letzten Jahren stark abgenommen. Grund dafür ist der europaweit überdurchschnittlich starke Einsatz von Pestiziden in der Schweizer Landwirtschaft. Die Postkartenidylle der Schweizer Seen täuscht darüber hinweg, dass es um die Wasserqualität unserer Gewässer nicht zum Besten steht. Verglichen mit dem Ausland werden in der Schweiz überdurchschnittlich viel Pestizide in der Landwirtschaft eingesetzt, um nicht zu stark von Lebensmittelimporten abhängig zu sein. Dies geschieht zum Leidwesen von Fischen.

Nature preservation group BirdLife Finland reports that domestic populations of the endangered common pochard have decreased massively in the past two decades. BirdLife's calculations show that Finnish populations of the common pochard (Aythya ferina) have fallen a staggering 80 percent in the past 20 years. The organisation hopes to help revive the species by naming it the year's top bird.In the early 1970s the Kokemäki river delta in Satakunta was bustling with some 250 pairs of pochards. Local calculations from a few years ago put the figure at just 30.

Queen health is crucial to colony survival of honeybees, since reproduction and colony growth rely solely on the queen. Queen failure is considered a relevant cause of 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 can severely affect the immunocompetence of queens of western honeybees (Apis mellifera L.).

Honeybee colony survival strongly relies on the queen to overcome worker losses exposed to combined stressors like pesticides and parasites. Queen’s capacity to withstand these stressors is however very little known. The effects of the common neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid in a chronic and sublethal exposure together with the wide distributed parasite Nosema ceranae have therefore been investigated on queen’s physiology and survivorship in laboratory and field conditions.