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Biodiversity (General)

• Acute toxicity of neonicotinoid insecticides to ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) from Pennsylvania
  Predatory soil arthropods are under-represented in insecticide toxicity studies, severely limiting our understanding of how insecticides affect soil-invertebrate communities in agroecosystems. As a step toward addressing this issue, we conducted novel acute oral, topical, and soil-based toxicity assays on 9 ground beetle species (Coleopetera: Carabidae) in response to the neonicotinoid insecticides clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and imidacloprid. From these assays, we calculated 24 h TD50, TC50, LD50, and LC50 values, measured 24 h feeding activity, and recorded beetle survival for 7 d after exposure.
  [Pearsons, K. and Tooker, J. (2025) Acute toxicity of neonicotinoid insecticides to ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) from Pennsylvania, Environmental Entomology. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/ee/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ee/nvaf048/8128784.]
• Current-use pesticides in vegetation, topsoil and water reveal contaminated landscapes of the Upper Rhine Valley, Germany
  Non-target areas in agricultural landscapes serve as invaluable refuges for organisms and safeguard biodiversity. This research aimed to examine the landscape-scale distribution of Current Use Pesticides (CUPs) in the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany, a region characterised by intensive agriculture in the valley and bordered by forested lower mountain regions. We sampled vegetation, topsoil, and surface water at 78 non-target, off-field sites during the pesticide application season in 2022. The sites were located in six 30 km long transects to cover both the valley and mountain regions. Samples were analysed for 93 CUPs. In total, 63 different CUPs (29 fungicides, 19 herbicides and 15 insecticides) were detected in all samples (n = 186). CUPs were recorded in 97% of all vegetation and 97% of all topsoil samples (76 of 78 samples each). In total, 140 unique mixtures with ≥2 components were recorded. A prediction map using additional site parameters suggests a widespread presence of CUPs extending multiple hundred meters beyond CUP application areas. Landscape-scale mixture contamination is not addressed in environmental risk assessment for the regulation of pesticides. The study design could serve as a benchmark for evaluating landscape-scale pesticide contamination after implementation of pesticide reduction efforts in agricultural policies and practice.
  [Mauser, K.M., Wolfram, J., Spaak, J.W. et al. Current-use pesticides in vegetation, topsoil and water reveal contaminated landscapes of the Upper Rhine Valley, Germany. Commun Earth Environ 6, 166 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02118-2]
• Exposure to pesticides is correlated with gut microbiota alterations in a farmland raptor
  The gut microbiota is crucial for host health and can be impacted by various environmental disruptions, yet the effects of multiple pesticide exposures on farmland organisms’ microbiomes remain largely unexplored. We assessed microbiota changes in a wild apex predator exposed to multiple pesticides in agricultural landscapes. Pesticides, including acetochlor and quinoxyfen, which are supposed to be banned, were significantly positively correlated with certain key bacteria from Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria classes. Our results light up the potential collateral effect of pesticides on gut bacterial assemblages through unknown mechanisms. These effects could result in dysbiosis and the promotion of potential pathogens and/or the selection of bacteria that might allow the organism to detoxify the organism. Although formal metagenomic analyses would be required soon, these microbial shifts underline the broader ecological consequences of pesticide exposure, emphasising the need for integrated biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management to protect environmental and public health.
  [Bariod, L. et al. (2025) Exposure to pesticides is correlated with gut microbiota alterations in a farmland raptor, Environment International. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412025001874.]
• First report on the occurrence of anticoagulant rodenticides toxicosis in nontarget animals in Thailand
  Background
  Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) are widely used worldwide to control rodent populations, yet their toxicity to nontarget animal species, such as dogs and cats, raises significant concerns. Until now, there has been no information about the occurrence status of ARs toxicosis in Thailand. This study presents occurrence data on ARs poisoning in animal specimens analysed at the Department of Veterinary Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Data from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2023, was collected retrospectively, focusing on confirmed ARs intoxication cases identified through chemical analysis using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and spectrophotometry methods. Detailed information on animal species, ages, sex, and types of animal specimens analysed was included.

  Results
  During the study period, 35 cases (63.6%) out of 55 tested positive for ARs. Dogs accounted for 77.1% of the ARs-positive cases. Notably, specimens from wild animals and exotic pets, including a turkey, a wild boar, a goose, and three Patagonian mara, were also tested positive for ARs poisoning. Both liver and stomach content specimens showed high agreement in ARs detection, suggesting the potential utility of stomach content analysis alongside liver specimens, which has not been previously reported.

  Conclusions
  This retrospective study underscores the risk of ARs toxicosis in nontarget species. TLC and spectrophotometry methods serve as reliable screening tools for confirming ARs intoxication diagnosis. This study provided a reference for future research on the epidemiology on ARs toxicosis among nontarget species.
  [Chansiripornchai, P., Hunprasit, V. and Techangamsuwan, S. (2025) First report on the occurrence of anticoagulant rodenticides toxicosis in nontarget animals in Thailand, BMC Veterinary Research. Available at: https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-025-04789-7. ]

• Neonicotinoid exposure causes behavioral impairment and delayed mortality of the federally threatened American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus
  Among the most immediate drivers of American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus Olivier) declines, nontarget toxicity to pesticides is poorly understood. Acute, episodic exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides at environmentally relevant concentrations is linked to negative impacts on beneficial terrestrial insect taxa. Beyond mortality, behavioral indicators of toxicity are often better suited to assess sublethal effects of residual concentrations in the environment. First, Nicrophorus spp. congeners were used to generate and identify a low-dose exposure rate (lethal dose 10%; LD10) from an acute, 24-hour exposure and the concentration-series was confirmed by LC–MS/MS. Next, we evaluated the effects of single and repeated low-dose (LD10 = 58.9 ng/beetle) imidacloprid exposure on N. americanus behavior (10 minutes post-dose) and mortality (10 days post-dose). Behavior parameters were analyzed using EthoVision-XT. Control N. americanus were significantly less mobile, demonstrating death-feigning, an anti-predator behavior. Single LD10 dosed N. americanus were hyperactive, traveling over 4 times farther (total distance; p = 0.03) and faster (mean velocity; p = 0.02) than controls. Single and repeated LD10 dosed N. americanus extended their wings without taking flight and flipped on their backs. All control N. americanus survived 10 days post-dose; single LD10 and repeated LD10 exhibited 30% and 50% mortality, respectively. A single LD10 exposure event was sufficient to significantly elicit greater movement and high predation risk behaviors, whereas repeated LD10 exposure did not worsen behavioral impairment but increased mortality over time. Collectively, generalized linear mixed effects models indicated that distance traveled, velocity, and extended wings were significant predictors of mortality. Recently reclassified, the federally threatened N. americanus may be at greater risk to insecticide exposure than previously thought and vulnerable to episodic, low-dose neonicotinoid exposure.
  [Cavallaro, M. et al. (2025) Neonicotinoid exposure causes behavioral impairment and delayed mortality of the federally threatened American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus, PLOS One. Available at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0314243.]
• Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities
  Although pesticides have been proposed as one of the main causes of insect decline, there are still few studies assessing their effects on non-target species under field conditions. Here we investigated the effects of the neonicotinoid insecticide Mospilan®SG (active ingredient acetamiprid) on plant bugs (Heteroptera: Miridae), a dominant group of European grassland insect communities. In a controlled field study, the abundance of three focal species was reduced by up to 92% two days after field exposure at concentrations expected at field margins, with mortality varying among species. Follow-up feeding assays with insecticide-treated host plants in the greenhouse and controlled dose-response laboratory assays confirmed the strong negative effects on non-target species. Strikingly, when comparing the lethal dose 50 derived from Mospilan®SG with a value reported for honeybees using another acetamiprid formulation, the insecticide was over 11,000 times more toxic to plant bugs than to honeybees. In addition, males were 20 times more sensitive than females in the two tested species. Thus, continuous exposure to this neonicotinoid may reduce plant bug populations and promote insecticide-tolerant species, altering community composition. We suggest that sex-specific sensitivity be considered in risk assessment and conclude that the true risk to non-target insects is currently greatly underestimated.
  [Sedlmeier, J.E. et al. (2025) Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities, Communications Earth & Environment. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02065-y.]
• Neonicotinoids in Connecticut Waters: Surface Water, Groundwater, and Threats to Aquatic Ecosystems
  Neonicotinoid insecticide use has increased markedly nationwide and in Connecticut during the 21st Century. Peer-reviewed studies and the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) link neonicotinoids to devastating declines in birds, bees, butterflies, and other insects, and to the jeopardizing of over 200 endangered and listed species. The high solubility of neonicotinoids in water makes them a potential threat to aquatic ecosystems, in particular to aquatic macroinvertebrates, as well as to the fish, frogs, birds and other wildlife that depend on them for survival. Water quality monitoring by the US Geological Survey (USGS) shows that neonicotinoids frequently and consistently appear in Connecticut’s surface waters at levels expected to cause significant harm to the state’s aquatic ecosystems and which also represent the potential for human health harms.

  Estimating the amount of neonicotinoids used in Connecticut remains a challenge for two reasons: 1) the state database system which captures amounts of pesticides applied by licensed applicators cannot be searched by pesticide name, and 2) the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds, which came on the market in 2004 and are widely used prophylactically by Connecticut farmers, are not tracked as pesticides due to an USEPA decision that once coated on a seed, such coatings are not considered to be a pesticide. This is particularly concerning as neonicotinoid use as a seed coating is pervasive for some crops in the United States (e.g., 71% to 100% of corn seed).

  Imidacloprid, one of the earliest and most widely used neonicotinoids, was detected in 45% of surface water samples tested between 2001 and 2024, and was detected in 11% of groundwater samples tested between 2002 and 2017. All positive tests of imidacloprid in Connecticut represent levels above the USEPA chronic benchmark for aquatic invertebrates, which is the concentration that is expected to cause harm during prolonged exposure. Imidacloprid has become more frequently detected in Connecticut surface water through time, whereas the frequency of imidacloprid detection in groundwater did not increase through time. Seasonal patterns in imidacloprid detection reflect greater spring and summer applications of neonicotinoids for agricultural pest control or for the care of manicured lawns and golf courses, but they also show levels consistently above the chronic benchmark for every month in which they were detected. Chronic year-round exposure indicates continual stress to aquatic insects at all life stages.

  Imidacloprid concentration has been increasing through time in Connecticut surface waters. The highest concentrations (eight times higher than the USEPA chronic benchmark for aquatic life) were detected in the only targeted study in Connecticut, which was designed to sample when (summer) and where (near large expanses of manicured turfgrass) neonicotinoids are typically used for pest control in suburban settings. These results suggest that targeted sampling of areas (e.g., waters near row crops such as corn and soybeans, near golf courses, or near suburban areas with manicured lawns) during the summer months is more likely to reflect the presence of neonicotinoids than do the data currently provided by the USGS. In addition, imidacloprid concentrations increase toward southern Connecticut, possibly indicating greater use in the southern parts of the state or the movement of imidacloprid south through streams and rivers. Nonetheless, surface waters throughout most of the state remain untested for neonicotinoids.

  The effects of imidacloprid on biota remain poorly understood in Connecticut because of the absence of studies that test for neonicotinoids and that survey macroinvertebrate communities at the same time and in the same places. However, evidence from the Norwalk River shows a decline in the abundance and richness of some ecologically important species, such as mayflies, which serve as a key food source for fish and other macroinvertebrates and help recycle nutrients in the water column. The potential impacts of neonicotinoids on biodiversity throughout the state warrants critical investigation.

  Testing of groundwater for neonicotinoids has been sporadic (mostly restricted to 2003 and 2017) and does not provide sufficient information to adequately assess the persistence or occurrence of neonicotinoids in groundwater, which is concerning in a state where so many residents depend on well water. To understand the frequency with which imidacloprid infiltrates groundwater, representing a potential threat to human health, a protocol must be established for more consistent sampling and testing of groundwaters. More intensive monitoring of both surface and ground waters is needed in Connecticut, especially for neonicotinoid compounds that are not currently monitored by the USGS, including acetamiprid, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam. Recent studies have linked neonicotinoids to human health threats, including harms to heart and brain development in prenatally exposed children, decreased sperm quality and quantity, as well as decreased testosterone levels.
  [Presley, S.J., Perkins, C.R. and Willig, M.R. (2025) Neonicotinoids in Connecticut Waters: Surface Water, Groundwater, and Threats to Aquatic Ecosystems, Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering. Available at: https://norwalkriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Neonicotinoids-in-Connecticut-Final-Report-1-11-2025-1.pdf. ]

• Networks in Aquatic Communities Collapse Upon Neonicotinoid-Induced Stress
  Freshwater ecosystems worldwide are under pressure from neonicotinoid insecticides. While it is recognised that communities of species are responsible for ecosystem functioning, it remains unknown if neonicotinoid-induced community transformations negatively affect ecosystem functioning. Therefore, we employed an experimental approach with 36 naturally established freshwater ecosystems exposed to increasing field-realistic concentrations of the neonicotinoid thiacloprid. Upon exposure, we found severe degradation of ecosystem functioning in the form of loss of organic matter consumption and dramatic shifts in primary productivity. This functional decline coincides with strongly eroded species co-occurrence networks to the point that these are indistinguishable from randomised assemblages of species. Together, these findings show how current environmental concentrations of a neonicotinoid can strongly disrupt freshwater ecosystem functioning via degradation of the invertebrate food web. Since this dramatic ecosystem degradation occurs below nearly all identified ecotoxicological risks, we call here for the reconsideration of the use of these insecticides.
  [Barmentlo, S. et al. (2025) Networks in Aquatic Communities Collapse Upon Neonicotinoid-Induced Stress, Ecology Letters. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.70121.]
• Organic farming fosters arthropod diversity of specific insect guilds – evidence from metabarcoding
  During the past decades, insect diversity, abundance and biomass has decreased throughout Central Europe, mainly due to agricultural intensification. Organic field management aims to counteract this negative trend. In order to investigate the effects of farming intensity on insect diversity, abundance, and biomass, we sampled insects from 2021 to 2023 on three organically and three conventionally managed meadows in southern Germany using Malaise traps. All individuals collected were subsequently analysed using metabarcoding, and BINs were determined. All identified taxa were then classified according to their characteristics and performance during the developmental and adult stage. All bulk samples were dried and weighted for the determination of biomass. BIN diversity of flying insects was 11% and biomass 75% higher on organically managed meadows compared to conventional ones. Although all functional guilds were more diverse on organic meadows, species overlap between management types was moderate and ranged from 60 to 76%, indicating that both, conventional and organic meadows harbour specific and species rich insect communities. Our trait-analyses showed that both habitat structure as well as resource availability strongly impacted the occurrence of species and diversity. The observed differences in diversity mainly result from the higher mowing frequency applied to conventionally managed meadows. Our study highlights that organic and conventional farming both have potential to maintain a high insect diversity and biomass in agricultural landscapes if some basic prerequisites for population survival are fulfilled.
  [Habel, J. et al. (2025) Organic farming fosters arthropod diversity of specific insect guilds – evidence from metabarcoding, Conservation Genetics. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-025-01707-0.]
• Pesticide residue in cucumber-exposed plants, and its associated effects on soil nematode population
  This study investigates pesticide residues in cucumber plants and their impact on soil nematode populations while evaluating the effect of pesticides on cucumber growth and yield. Gas Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) was used to quantify pesticide residues, comparing the results to the Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) defined by the Codex Alimentarius. Significant differences in residue levels were found between various pesticides and application rates. Diazinon residues ranged from 0.86 to 2.28 mg/kg, exceeding the MRL of 0.1 mg/kg, indicating soil contamination. Endosulfan had the lowest residues, from 0.44 to 1.75 mg/kg, which were within acceptable limits. Conversely, Malathion and Methoxychlor residues notably surpassed their MRLs, raising potential safety concerns. Further analysis using a linear regression model revealed a negative correlation between pesticide application and soil nematode populations. There was a proportional decrease in nematode populations with increasing pesticide application rate, with Malathion having the most significant impact, followed by Endosulfan, Methoxychlor, and Diazinon. The impact of pesticide application on cucumber plant growth and yield was assessed using one-way ANOVA, which uncovered significant differences across treatment groups. While pesticides are effective for pest control, their application must be carefully managed to avoid phytotoxicity and ensure optimal plant and environmental health, thereby enhancing maximum productivity.
  [Imonikebe, P. et al. (2025) Pesticide residue in cucumber-exposed plants, and its associated effects on soil nematode population, Advances in Modern Agriculture. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390847748_Pesticide_residue_in_cucumber-exposed_plants_and_its_associated_effects_on_soil_nematode_population.]
• Systematic assessments of ecological and health risks of soil pesticide residues
  Pesticides have represented a crucial tool to ensure the efficient production and development of modern agriculture; however, they inevitably polluted the environment and have posed threats to ecological security and human health. Although agricultural soil pesticide residues have long threatened the environment, a relatively complete system for evaluating their health and ecological risks has not yet been developed. To address this research gap, based on the health and ecological risk values calculated by a detailed detection of 50 pesticides on agricultural lands in Zhejiang Province, China, and supplemented by the analysis of soil microbial community composition, the present study proposed a comprehensive assessment system for pesticide residue risks. We found that 98.62 % of the soil samples contained more than ten pesticide types. Notably, while both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic threat posed by pesticide residues to soil ecological security and human health was assessed as low, risk values varied significantly across different regions and agricultural practices. With an increase in the ecological risk of pesticide residues, the relative abundance of Firmicutes in the soil decreased significantly, indicating that Firmicutes may be used as an indicator of the ecological risk of pesticides. Taking advantage of differences in ecological risk, we also identified that some special microbial groups are substantially enriched in the face of pesticide pollution stress and can be used as candidate pesticide-degrading bacteria. This study investigated the correlation between pesticide residue risks and soil ecological security and human health, revealed the response characteristics of soil microbial communities under pesticide stress, and identified microbes strongly related to pesticide ecological risks. These findings can provide theoretical support for the future green management of pesticide residues in agricultural lands.
  [Tang, T. et al. (2025) Systematic assessments of ecological and health risks of soil pesticide residues, Environmental Pollution. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749125007213.]
• Assessing the ecological impact of pesticides/herbicides on algal communities: A comprehensive review
  The escalating use of pesticides in agriculture for enhanced crop productivity threatens aquatic ecosystems, jeopardizing environmental integrity and human well-being. Pesticides infiltrate water bodies through runoff, chemical spills, and leachate, adversely affecting algae, vital primary producers in marine ecosystems. The repercussions cascade through higher trophic levels, underscoring the need for a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between pesticides, algae, and the broader ecosystem. Algae, susceptible to pesticides via spillage, runoff, and drift, experience disruptions in community structure and function, with certain species metabolizing and bioaccumulating these contaminants. The toxicological mechanisms vary based on the specific pesticide and algal species involved, particularly evident in herbicides' interference with photosynthetic activity in algae. Despite advancements, gaps persist in comprehending the precise toxic effects and mechanisms affecting algae and non-target species. This review consolidates information on the exposure and toxicity of diverse pesticides and herbicides to aquatic algae, elucidating underlying mechanisms. An emphasis is placed on the complex interactions between pesticides/herbicides, nutrient content, and their toxic effects on algae and microbial species. The variability in the harmful impact of a single pesticide across different algae species underscores the necessity for further research. A holistic approach considering these interactions is imperative to enhance predictions of pesticide effects in marine ecosystems. Continued research in this realm is crucial for a nuanced understanding of the repercussions of pesticides and herbicides on aquatic ecosystems, mainly algae.
  [Narayanan, N. et al. (2024) Assessing the ecological impact of pesticides/herbicides on algal communities: A comprehensive review, Aquatic Toxicology. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166445X24000225?via%3Dihub.]
• Beyond the field: How pesticide drift endangers biodiversity
  Airborne pesticide drift poses a substantial environmental threat in agriculture, affecting ecosystems far from the application sites. This process, in which up to 25% of applied pesticides are carried by air currents, can transport chemicals over hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. Drift rates peak during the summer months, reaching as high as 60%, and are influenced by various factors, including wind speed, temperature, humidity, and soil type. Pesticide volatilization is a significant concern, occurring 25 times more frequently than surface runoff. Under certain conditions, it can result in chemical losses of compounds like metolachlor and atrazine that are up to 150 times higher. These drifting pesticides have profound impacts on biodiversity, harming non-target plants, insects, fungi, and other organisms both near application sites and in distant ecosystems. Pesticide drift has been linked to over 50% reductions in wild plant diversity within 500 m of fields, reducing floral resources for pollinators. Despite growing evidence of these effects, the long-term consequences of airborne pesticides on biodiversity remain poorly understood, especially in complex field conditions with multiple pesticide applications. Addressing this requires urgent measures, such as improved meteorological tracking during applications, adoption of biopesticides, and integrated pest management strategies. This review highlights the pressing need for research to quantify airborne pesticides' ecological impacts, advocating for sustainable practices to mitigate environmental damage.
  [Albaseer, S. et al. (2024) Beyond the field: How pesticide drift endangers biodiversity, Environmental Pollution. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749124022437.]
• Comparing the effects of three neonicotinoids on embryogenesis of the South African clawed frog Xenopus laevis
  Neonicotinoids (NEOs) are widely used insecticides that are ubiquitous in agricultural use. Since NEOs are found in natural waters as well as in tap water and human urine in regions where NEOs are widely used, NEOs pose a potential hazard to non-target organisms such as animals and humans. Some of the commonly detected NEOs are imidacloprid (IMD), thiamethoxam (TMX), and its metabolite clothianidin (CLO). Although previously published scientific information, including an assessment of the environmental risks, particularly for bees, had resulted in a ban on the outdoor use of these three NEOs in the EU – their use is now only permitted in closed greenhouses – these NEOs continue to be used in agriculture in many other parts of the world. Therefore, a detailed study and comparison of the effects of NEOs on the embryonic development of non-target organisms is needed to further define the risk profiles.

  Embryos of the South African clawed frog Xenopus laevis, a well-established aquatic model, were exposed to different concentrations of IMD, TMX, or CLO (0.1–100 mg/L) to study and compare the possible effects of a single contaminant in natural water bodies on early embryogenesis. The results included a reduced body length, a smaller orbital space, impaired cranial cartilage and nerves, and an altered heart structure and function. At the molecular level, NEO exposure partially resulted in an altered expression of tissue-specific factors, which are involved in eye, cranial placode, and heart development.

  Our results suggest that the NEOs studied negatively affect the embryonic development of the non-target organism X. laevis. Since pesticides, especially NEOs, pollute the environment worldwide, it is suggested that they are strictly controlled and monitored in the areas where they are used. In addition, the question arises as to whether pesticide metabolites also pose a risk to the environment and need to be investigated further so that they can be taken into account when registering ingredients.
  [Flach, H. et al. (2024) Comparing the effects of three neonicotinoids on embryogenesis of the South African clawed frog xenopus laevis, Current Research in Toxicology. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666027X24000227?via%3Dihub. ]

• Digging below the surface: Hidden risks for ground-nesting bees
  Modern intensive agriculture faces a critical paradox: The very pesticides designed to protect our crops endanger essential pollinators that sustain their productivity. As human reliance on pollinator-dependent crops grows, it becomes more urgent than ever to reconcile the need for crop protection with pollinator preservation. The stakes are high, as pollinators, such as bees, are vital to food security and biodiversity.
  [Rondeau, S. (2024) Digging below the surface: Hidden risks for ground-nesting bees, Science. Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt8998.]
• Drivers and barriers to adoption of regenerative agriculture: cases studies on lessons learned from organic
  Regenerative agriculture has emerged as a potentially outcome-based paradigm centring on soil health, biodiversity and other environmental and social parameters. Early days of organic agriculture also focused on philosophy first and evolved into a process-based regulatory paradigm whose adoption remains small relative to conventional production. Five case studies of professional growers, representing a total of 100,000 acres of production, were collected to identify reasons for choosing to grow or stop growing organic, challenges faced and attitudes around regenerative agriculture. Growers identified issues of complex and unpredictable regulation, labour, inability to predict market trends and secure needed premiums, cost and effectiveness of natural fertilizers and lack of effectiveness in pest control. These growers adopted similar practices (e.g., integrated pest management) for environmental benefits across conventional and organic acres, and viewed consumer demand and potential profitability rather than environmental benefits as the main drivers for practising organic. Growers expressed interest in outcome-based regenerative agriculture. To be viable, a programme requires criteria on measurement and certification, regionally tailored flexibility and clear financial incentives. Growers doubt such a programme would replace organic but see opportunities for new marketing programmes, particularly in carbon sequestration and water management. Challenges identified by growers warrant further study.
  [Lemke, S. et al. (2024) Drivers and barriers to adoption of regenerative agriculture: cases studies on lessons learned from organic, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14735903.2024.2324216. ]
• Ecological Crisis Due to Chemical Toxicity: Addressing Soil Health for Better Human Health
  When environmental changes undermine a species' or population's ability to survive, it is said to be in an ecological crisis. Pesticides, particularly persistent organic pollutants (POPs), are among the top ten chemicals and hazardous compounds that the WHO has recognized as being a concern for global health. The overuse and improper handling of agrochemicals is the primary driver of the ecological disaster. According to the GBD 2019, pollution of any type, including air pollution, lead, and other chemicals, causes one in six deaths globally. Industrialization, urbanization, population growth, the burning of fossil fuels, and a lack of adequate national or international chemical policies account for the 66% increase in deaths. Because of lack of awareness, training, and proper expertise regarding agrochemicals, it is particularly challenging to determine the influence on human health or the environment in developing nations. Studies in Northern India have shown evidence of the presence of heavy metals and pesticides in samples of fodder, vegetables, milk, urine, and blood. In addition to signs of genotoxic effect, there were significantly more spontaneous abortions, premature births, stillbirths that were five times as frequent, delay in milestone development, language delays, blue lines in the gums, mottled teeth, and gastrointestinal diseases, which may have been brought on by water contamination with pesticides and heavy metals. The greater rates of cancer including breast, uterus/cervix, ovary cancers of the blood and lymphatic system, oesophagus, and bones, are associated with farming, pesticides exposure, alcohol and smoking. Hence the soil and water have cocktail of pesticides and heavy metals. Pesticides have been widely used, and it is possible to find their remnants in the air, water, and soil. The three most important environmental problems affecting the globe now are pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Various new concepts, including sustainable agriculture reforms and food production that uses sustainable practices, have been inspired by the pressing need for a more sustainable and ecological approach. This review elaborates the extent of pollution due to heavy metals and pesticides with their health impacts and the regulatory measures to overcome this by various methods such as concept of soil security, food security, Natueco farming and multisectoral approach.
  [Thakur, J.S. and Paika, R. (2024) Ecological crisis due to chemical toxicity: Addressing soil health for better human health, Journal of Environmental Science and Public Health. Available at: https://www.fortunejournals.com/articles/ecological-crisis-due-to-chemical-toxicity-addressing-soil-health-for-better-human-health.html.]
• Effect of organic farming on root microbiota, seed production and pathogen resistance in winter wheat fields
  Societal Impact Statement
  Agricultural intensification is a major driver of biodiversity decline in agrosystems. For instance, it has been shown that conventional farming leads to a decline in soil microbial diversity and triggers a strong selection process, altering the functioning of the whole ecosystem. The present study shows that organic farming increases diversity and affects composition of crop plant microbiota, mostly as a response to field management and soil characteristics. Furthermore, crop plant microbiota influences crop production and resistance to pathogens. Therefore, agricultural practices affect plant performance through microorganism-mediated changes, which may be important pillars of future sustainable crop production.

  Summary
  Agricultural intensification threatens biodiversity, but the effects of intensification on microorganisms are still overlooked despite their role in ecosystem functioning. Microorganisms associated with plants provide many services that affect plant growth and health. Organic farming is expected to strongly affect species composition, richness, and their interactions. We analyzed the effect of the farming system on endophytic microbial assemblages associated with winter wheat plants and plant performance in the field.
  We collected environmental data through farmer interviews, soil analyses, and plant inventories and analyzed root microbiota at vegetative and flowering stages.
  Organic farming increased fungal and bacterial diversity associated to wheat plants and affected species composition in most phyla. This effect was mostly due to soil characteristics and field management and a little to plant diversity in the field. Microbial responses were more pronounced at the late developmental stage, likely as a result of accumulative effect of management actions during plant development. Seed production and resistance to pathogens were related to specific phyla that are important for seed production and/or wheat resistance to septoriose.
  This work advances our understanding of how agricultural practices affect plant performance through microorganism-mediated changes and supports the use of microorganisms as pillars of sustainable crop production.
  [Ricono, C. et al. (2024) Effect of organic farming on root microbiota, seed production and pathogen resistance in winter wheat fields, Plants, People, Planet. Available at: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp3.10602.]

• Effects of Agricultural Pesticides on Decline in Insect Species and Individual Numbers
  As agricultural production increases, the use of chemical fertilisers, herbicides, and other synthetic pesticides has equally increased over the years. Inadequate pesticide application description and monitoring has generated a heated debate among governmental organisations, agricultural industries, and conservation organisations about pesticide effects on insect species richness and abundance. This review is therefore aimed at summarizing the decline in insects’ species and individual numbers as a result of extensive pesticide utilisation and recommends possible management strategies for its mitigation. This review revealed an average pesticide application of 1.58 kg per ha per year, 0.37 kg per person per year, and 0.79 kg per USD 1000 per year. Insects have experienced a greater species abundance decline than birds, plants, and other organisms, which could pose a significant challenge to global ecosystem management. Although other factors such as urbanisation, deforestation, monoculture, and industrialisation may have contributed to the decline in insect species, the extensive application of agro-chemicals appears to cause the most serious threat. Therefore, the development of sustainable and environmentally friendly management strategies is critical for mitigating insect species’ decline.
  [Quandahor, P. et al. (2024) Effects of agricultural pesticides on decline in insect species and individual numbers, Environments. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/11/8/182.]
• Effects of tillage intensity and pesticide treated seeds on epigeal arthropod communities and weed seed predation in a maize-soybean rotation
  Tillage practices and the use of pesticide seed treatments (PST) both have the potential to influence epigeal arthropod communities and the ecosystem services they provide, yet few studies have examined both factors in conjunction. A three-year field study (2017–2019) was conducted to assess the independent and interactive effects of tillage and pesticide seed treatments on epigeal arthropod communities and weed seed predation in a long-term row crop tillage intensity experiment located in southeastern New Hampshire, USA. Throughout the study, maize and soybean were planted in rotation with and without pesticide seed treatments (seed coatings containing a mixture of systemic and contact fungicides and neonicotinoid insecticides) under three tillage systems (full-, strip-, and no-till) in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Epigeal arthropod communities were sampled with pitfall traps from September to October 2018–2019 and weed seed predation was assessed over the same period each year from 2017–2019. A total of 1669 individual arthropods, representing 47 taxonomic groups, were observed over the course of the study. In 2018, epigeal arthropod communities differed based only on pesticide seed treatment. The opposite response was observed in 2019, as epigeal arthropod communities differed based only on tillage. Activity densities of Pterostichus melanarius (Illiger) were higher in the strip-till compared to full-till treatment in 2018. Annual levels of post-dispersal weed seed predation by invertebrates (% total seeds removed) varied based on tillage treatment in 2017 and 2019, but not in 2018, and ranged from as low as 6.1 % to as much as 27.2 % depending on year and treatment. These data provide evidence that both pesticide seed treatments and tillage systems can influence the communities of epigeal arthropods that inhabit annual row crop agroecosystems relatively late in the growing season, when the majority of pesticide residues have likely dissipated, and that the weed seed predation services provided by members of this community can be strongly negatively impacted by intensive tillage.
  [Ativor, I., Warren, N. and Smith, R. (2024) Effects of tillage intensity and pesticide treated seeds on epigeal arthropod communities and weed seed predation in a maize-soybean rotation, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880924004560. ]
• Flooding as a Vector for the Transport of Pesticides from Streams to Riparian Plants
  Agricultural pesticides occurring in surface freshwaters can be transported back to land via various transport routes, such as emerging insects or flooding. However, we lack information about whether flooding events can contribute to this transport in smaller agricultural catchments and the potential cascading effect of these pesticides on the recipient food web. We used UHPLC-MS/MS to measure 98 pesticides and metabolites in five riparian plant species and root-zone soils collected in five streams in Southwest Germany. All sampling locations included two paired sites differing in their flooding frequency. Six fungicides and three herbicides were frequently detected in regularly flooded sites. The regularly flooded sites contained more pesticides and higher concentrations compared with the rarely flooded sites. This pattern was present in both plants and root-zone soil, suggesting flooding as a vector for the aquatic–terrestrial transport in small streams. Prosulfocarb, pendimethalin, cyflufenamid, and flufenacet occurred at higher concentrations in plants than in soil, while the opposite result was found for spiroxamine, metrafenone, and boscalid. Our study provides evidence from the field that flooding events, which may increase due to climate change, can transport pesticides to riparian soils and plants with potential cascading effects on terrestrial food webs.
  [Fiolka, F. et al. (2024) Flooding as a Vector for the Transport of Pesticides from Streams to Riparian Plants, American Chemical Society ES&T Water. Available at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsestwater.4c00571.]
• Glyphosate formulations cause mortality and diverse sublethal defects during embryonic development of the amphibian Xenopus laevis
  The human impact on environmental landscapes, such as land use, climate change or pollution, is threatening global biodiversity and ecosystems maintenance. Pesticides like the herbicide glyphosate have garnered considerable attention due to their well-documented harmful effects on non-target species. During application, the active ingredient glyphosate is utilized in various formulations, each containing different additive adjuvants. However, the possible effects of these formulations on amphibians - the group with the highest decline rates among vertebrates - remain largely unknown.
  Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of four glyphosate formulations (Glyphosat TF, Durano TF, Helosate 450 TF, Kyleo) on the embryonic development of the model organism Xenopus laevis (South African clawed frog). Embryos at the 2-cell stage were exposed to various concentrations of glyphosate formulations (glyphosate: 0.01–100 mg/L), and mortality as well as sublethal effects on different organs and tissues were analyzed. The results indicated that the formulations had different effects, particularly on the mortality of Xenopus laevis embryos. At sublethal concentrations, the formulations altered the embryos' external appearance, leading to malformations such as reduced eye and head size. In addition, exposure to formulations impaired heart morphology and function, and the expression of heart-specific genes was altered at a molecular level.
  Our results confirmed that glyphosate formulations had a stronger effect on Xenopus laevis embryogenesis than pure glyphosate. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the active ingredient and the co-formulations independently, as well as the combined, commercially available products, during pesticide risk assessments and renewal procedures of agrochemicals. The severe global decline of amphibians, partly due to herbicide use, highlights the need for strict and efficient monitoring of environmental pesticide loads and application areas.
  [Flach, H. et al. (2024) Glyphosate formulations cause mortality and diverse sublethal defects during embryonic development of the amphibian Xenopus laevis, Chemosphere. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653524025244.]
• High temporal resolution data reveal low bat and insect activity over managed meadows in central Europe
  Increasing agriculture and pesticide use have led to declines in insect populations and biodiversity worldwide. In addition to insect diversity, it is also important to consider insect abundance, due to the importance of insects as food for species at higher trophic levels such as bats. We monitored spatiotemporal variation in abundance of nocturnal flying insects over meadows, a common open landscape structure in central Europe, and correlated it with bat feeding activity. Our most important result was that insect abundance was almost always extremely low. This was true regardless of management intensity of the different meadows monitored. We also found no correlation of insect abundance or the presence of insect swarms with bat feeding activity. This suggests that insect abundance over meadows was too low and insect swarms too rare for bats to risk expending energy to search for them. Meadows appeared to be poor habitat for nocturnal flying insects, and of low value as a foraging habitat for bats. Our study highlights the importance of long-term monitoring of insect abundance, especially at high temporal scales to identify and protect foraging habitats. This will become increasingly important given the rapid decline of insects.
  [Dietzer, M. et al. (2024) High temporal resolution data reveal low bat and insect activity over managed meadows in Central Europe, Scientific Reports. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-57915-0. ]
• Identification of DDT+ in Deep Ocean Sediment and Biota in the Southern California Bight
  The recent rediscovery of offshore DDT waste dumping in the Southern California Bight (SCB) has led to questions about the extent and type of pollution in deep ocean environments. We used a nontargeted analysis to identify halogenated organic compounds (HOCs), including DDT+, in sediment in the San Pedro Basin. Additionally, we examined the chemical profiles of deep ocean biota inhabiting the SCB to assess the bioavailability of DDT+ and HOCs to the deep ocean food web. We detected 49 HOCs across all samples, including 15 DDT+ compounds in the sediment and 10 DDT+ compounds in the biota. Compounds included tris(4-chlorophenyl)methane (TCPM) and its isomers and three unknown DDT-related compounds previously identified in marine mammals. No clear trends were identified regarding DDT+ distribution in sediments. High DDT+ body burdens were found in biota irrespective of collection location, indicating widespread DDT+ contamination in the deep ocean of the SCB. TCPMs were detected in all biota samples except a single surface species, indicating that deep ocean sediment may be a source of DDT+ to the marine food web. This study demonstrates that the analysis of the larger suite of DDT+ is critical to trace deep ocean pollution of DDT in the SCB.
  [Stack, M.E. et al. (2024) ‘Identification of DDT+ in deep ocean sediment and biota in the Southern California bight’, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 11(5), pp. 479–484. Available at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00115.]
• Impact of saflufenacil and glyphosate-based herbicides on the morphoanatomical and development of Enterolobium contortisiliquum (Vell.) Morong (Fabaceae): new insights into a non-target tropical tree species
  The unregulated use and improper management of herbicides can cause negative effects on non-target species and promote changes in biological communities. Therefore, the current study is aimed at understanding morphoanatomical responses and effects on seedling development induced by the herbicides glyphosate and saflufenacil in Enterolobium contortisiliquum, a non-target tropical species. The plants were cultivated in a greenhouse and subjected to herbicides at doses of 0, 160, 480, and 1440 g a.e ha−1 for glyphosate, and 0, 25, 50, and 100 g a.i ha−1 for saflufenacil. We conducted visual and morphological assessments over 90 days post-application. Leaf samples were collected 12 days after the application for anatomical analysis, and we also performed a micromorphometric analysis of the leaf tissues. Biomarkers of phytotoxicity were identified in plants exposed to both herbicides, even at the lowest doses, including in leaves without visual symptoms. The main morphological alterations were the decrease in growth, stem diameter, and dry mass. Furthermore, the leaves and stems visually exhibited chlorosis and necrosis. Both herbicides triggered anatomical modifications such as significant changes (p < 0.05) in the thickness of leaf tissues, hypertrophy, cell collapse, and changes in epicuticular waxes. However, the alterations induced by glyphosate were more widespread compared to saflufenacil, encompassing alterations in the root system. We confirmed that the different mechanisms of action of each herbicide and the existence of an underground reserve system in this species are intrinsically linked to the morphological and developmental responses described. Our findings suggest that E. contortisiliquum could be a potential bioindicator species for these herbicides in the environment, even at concentrations lower than those typically recommended for field application.
  [de Araújo, H.H., Soares, G.D.D., Dias-Pereira, J. et al. Impact of saflufenacil and glyphosate-based herbicides on the morphoanatomical and development of Enterolobium contortisiliquum (Vell.) Morong (Fabaceae): new insights into a non-target tropical tree species. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 61254–61269 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-35223-4]
• Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest
  Mounting evidence shows overall insect abundances are in decline globally. Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides have all been implicated, but their relative effects have never been evaluated in a comprehensive large-scale study. We harmonized 17 years of land use, climate, multiple classes of pesticides, and butterfly survey data across 81 counties in five states in the US Midwest. We find community-wide declines in total butterfly abundance and species richness to be most strongly associated with insecticides in general, and for butterfly species richness the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds in particular. This included the abundance of the migratory monarch (Danaus plexippus), whose decline is the focus of intensive debate and public concern. Insect declines cannot be understood without comprehensive data on all putative drivers, and the 2015 cessation of neonicotinoid data releases in the US will impede future research.
  [Deynze, B.V. et al. (2024) Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest, PLoS ONE. Available at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0304319. ]
• Interaction between imidacloprid residues in maize rhizospheric soil and soil nematode community
  Although imidacloprid has been shown to present potential risks to non-target invertebrates and vertebrates, researches exploring this risk from the perspective of the underground ecosystem remains incomplete. In this study, we determined that the presence of imidacloprid significantly reduced the abundance and diversity of soil nematodes in maize rhizospheric soil. Furthermore, imidacloprid also exerted negative effects on the body length, reproduction, locomotion, lipid accumulation, lipofuscin accumulation, and acetylcholinesterase activity in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. These toxic phenotypes are correlated with the upregulation of fat-2, fat-6, hsp-16.41, and hsp-16.2, along with the downregulation of ace-1, ace-2, and ace-3. In response to these toxic effects of imidacloprid, nematodes also developed corresponding adaptive mechanisms. UPLC-MS/MS analysis revealed that nematodes could convert imidacloprid to imidacloprid-guanidine and imidacloprid-urea to reduce the toxicity of imidacloprid. Moreover, C. elegans and Meloidogyne incognita exhibited repellent behavior towards imidacloprid-treated area, even the concentration of imidacloprid is only 0.4 μg/mL. This study revealed the interaction between imidacloprid and nematodes, providing a basis for understanding the potential risks of non-target soil nematodes after application of imidacloprid in sustainable agriculture and the resistance mechanism of nematodes to nematocidal pesticide.
  [Zhang, J. et al. (2024) Interaction between imidacloprid residues in maize rhizospheric soil and soil nematode community, Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048357524004528.]
• Investigating protistan predators and bacteria within soil microbiomes in agricultural ecosystems under organic and chemical fertilizer applications
  Organic farming can enhance biodiversity and soil health and is a sustainable alternative to conventional farming. Yet, soil protists especially protistan predators, have received inadequate attention, and their contributions to the sustainability of organic farming remained underexplored. In this study, we examined soil microbial communities from 379 samples, including both organic and chemically fertilized soils from China. Our findings revealed higher bacterial diversity and increases in plant-beneficial bacteria in organically farmed soils. Notably, organic farming systems facilitated dynamic predator-prey interactions, which may be disrupted by the application of chemical fertilizers. Additionally, organic farming enriched protistan predators, enhancing the relative abundance of functional PGPR, thus improving soil health. We further conducted a case study highlighting the critical role of organic matter in sustaining protistan predator populations and their interactions with bacteria. We propose the crucial contributions of organic inputs for supporting protistan predators and the interplay of predator-prey, ultimately enhancing soil functions and promoting agricultural sustainability.
  [Liu, C. et al. (2024) Investigating protistan predators and bacteria within soil microbiomes in agricultural ecosystems under organic and chemical fertilizer applications, Biology and Fertility of Soils . Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00374-024-01845-6. ]
• Organic farming reduces pesticide load in a bird of prey
  Human activities have led to the contamination of all environmental compartments worldwide, including bird species. In birds, both the environment and maternal transfer lead to high inter-brood variability in contamination levels of pollutants, whereas intra-brood variability is generally low. However, most existing studies focused on heavy metals or persistent compounds and none, to our knowledge, addressed the variability in contamination levels of multiple pesticides and the factors influencing it. In this study, the number of pesticides detected (of 104 compounds searched) and the sum of their concentrations in the blood of 55 Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus) nestlings from 22 nests sampled in 2021 were used as metrics of contamination levels. We investigated the effect of organic farming at the size of male's home range (i.e., 14 km2) and chicks' sex and hatching order on contamination levels. We did not find a difference between inter-brood and intra-brood variability in pesticide contamination levels, suggesting a different exposure of siblings through food items. While chicks' sex or rank did not affect their contamination level, we found that the percentage of organic farming around the nests significantly decreased the number of pesticides detected, although it did not decrease the total concentrations. This finding highlights the potential role of organic farming in reducing the exposure of birds to a pesticide cocktail.
  [Fuentes, E. et al. (2024) Organic farming reduces pesticide load in a bird of prey, Science of The Total Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724029255.]
• Organic food has lower environmental impacts per area unit and similar climate impacts per mass unit compared to conventional
  In recent years, interest in studying the climate and environmental impact of organic food has grown. Here, we compared the environmental impacts of organic and conventional food using data from 100 life cycle assessment studies. Most studies focused on climate impacts, with fewer addressing biodiversity loss and ecotoxicity. Findings revealed no significant differences in global warming, eutrophication potential, and energy use per mass unit. However, organic food showed lower global warming, eutrophication potential, and energy use per area unit, with higher land use. Additionally, organic farming showed lower potential for biodiversity loss and ecotoxicity. Challenges in life cycle assessment include evaluating biodiversity, toxicity, soil quality, and carbon changes. The choice of functional units influences results, highlighting the importance of considering multiple units in assessing organic food’s environmental footprint. This study emphasizes the necessity for comprehensive assessments at both product and diet levels to support informed decisions.
  [Hashemi, F. et al. (2024) Organic food has lower environmental impacts per area unit and similar climate impacts per mass unit compared to conventional, Communications Earth & Environment. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01415-6. ]
• Pervasive sublethal effects of agrochemicals on insects at environmentally relevant concentrations
  Insect biomass is declining globally, likely driven by climate change and pesticide use, yet systematic studies on the effects of various chemicals remain limited. In this work, we used a chemical library of 1024 molecules—covering insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and plant growth inhibitors—to assess the impact of sublethal pesticide doses on insects. In Drosophila melanogaster, 57% of chemicals affected larval behavior, and a higher proportion compromised long-term survivability. Exposure to sublethal doses also induced widespread changes in the phosphoproteome and changes in development and reproduction. The negative effects of agrochemicals were amplified when the temperature was increased. We observed similar behavioral changes across multiple insect species, including mosquitoes and butterflies. These findings suggest that widespread sublethal pesticide exposure can alter insect behavior and physiology, threatening long-term population survival.
  [Gandara, L. et al. (2024) Pervasive sublethal effects of agrochemicals on insects at environmentally relevant concentrations, Science. Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado0251. ]
• Residues of agrochemicals in beebread as an indicator of landscape management
  The agricultural intensification represents a major threat to biodiversity, with negative effects on the ecosystem. In particular, habitat loss and degradation, along with pesticide use have been recognised as primary factors contributing to the actual global decline of pollinators. Here we investigated the quality of agroecosystems in the Emilia-Romagna region (Northern Italy) within the national monitoring project BeeNet. We analysed pesticide residues in 100 samples of beebread collected in 25 BeeNet stations in March and June 2021 and 2022. We evaluated diversity and concentration of these chemicals, their risk (TWC) to honey bees, and their correlation with land use. Overall, in 84 % of the samples we found 63 out of 373 different pesticide residues, >90 % of them belonging to fungicides and insecticides. The TWC exceeded the risk threshold in seven samples (TWCmix), mostly due to only one or two compounds. We also found 15 compounds not approved in the EU as plant protection products (PPPs), raising concerns about illegal use or contamination through beeswax recycling. Samples collected in 2021 and in June presented a significantly higher number of active ingredients and TWC than those collected in 2022 and in March. The TWC calculated on single compounds (TWCcom) exceeded the risk threshold in case of four insecticides, namely carbaryl, fipronil, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam (although each detected in only one sample). Finally, both TWC and number of active ingredients were moderately or highly positively correlated with the percentage of area covered by orchards. Considering that we found on average more than five different molecules per sample, and that we ignored potential synergistic effects, the results of this work highlight the alarming situation regarding pesticide treatments and toxicity risk for bees linked to the current agricultural practices, and the need for implementing sustainable and pollinator-friendly strategies.
  [Bogo, G. et al. (2024) Residues of agrochemicals in beebread as an indicator of landscape management, Science of The Total Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969724042232?via%3Dihub. ]
• Risk assessments underestimate threat of pesticides to wild bees
  Ecological risk assessments (ERAs) are crucial when developing national strategies to manage adverse effects from pesticide exposure to natural populations. Yet, estimating risk with surrogate species in controlled laboratory studies jeopardizes the ERA process because natural populations exhibit intraspecific variation within and across species. Here, we investigate the extent to which the ERA process underestimates the risk from pesticides on different species by conducting a meta-analysis of all records in the ECOTOX Knowledgebase for honey bees and wild bees exposed to neonicotinoids. We found the knowledgebase is largely populated by acute lethality data on the Western honey bee and exhibits within and across species variation in LD50 up to 6 orders of magnitude from neonicotinoid exposure. We challenge the reliability of surrogate species as predictors when extrapolating pesticide toxicity data to wild pollinators and recommend solutions to address the (a)biotic interactions occurring in nature that make such extrapolations unreliable in the ERA process.
  [Shahmohamadloo, R., Guzman, L. and Tissier, M. (2024) Risk assessments underestimate threat of pesticides to wild bees, Conservation Letters. Available at: https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.13022. ]
• Synergistic interaction between a toxicant and food stress is further exacerbated by temperature
  Global biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate in response to multiple environmental stressors. Effective biodiversity management requires deeper understanding of the relevant mechanisms behind such ecological impacts. A key challenge is understanding synergistic interactions between multiple stressors and predicting their combined effects. Here we used Daphnia magna to investigate the interaction between a pyrethroid insecticide esfenvalerate and two non-chemical environmental stressors: elevated temperature and food limitation. We hypothesized that the stressors with different modes of action can act synergistically. Our findings showed additive effects of food limitation and elevated temperature (25 °C, null model effect addition (EA)) with model deviation ratio (MDR) ranging from 0.7 to 0.9. In contrast, we observed strong synergistic interactions between esfenvalerate and food limitation at 20 °C, considerably further amplified at 25 °C. Additionally, for all stress combinations, the synergism intensified over time indicating the latent effects of the pesticide. Consequently, multiple stress substantially reduced the lethal concentration of esfenvalerate by a factor of 19 for the LC50 (0.45–0.024 μg/L) and 130 for the LC10 (0.096–0.00074 μg/L). The stress addition model (SAM) predicted increasing synergistic interactions among stressors with increasing total stress.
  [Shahid, N., Siddique, A. and Liess, M. (2024) Synergistic interaction between a toxicant and food stress is further exacerbated by temperature, Environmental Pollution. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749124018268.]
• The economic impacts of ecosystem disruptions: Costs from substituting biological pest control
  Biodiversity loss is accelerating, yet we know little about how these ecosystem disruptions affect human well-being. Ecologists have documented both the importance of bats as natural predators of insects as well as their population declines after the emergence of a wildlife disease, resulting in a potential decline in biological pest control. In this work, I study how species interactions can extend beyond an ecosystem and affect agriculture and human health. I find that farmers compensated for bat decline by increasing their insecticide use by 31.1%. The compensatory increase in insecticide use by farmers adversely affected health—human infant mortality increased by 7.9% in the counties that experienced bat die-offs. These findings provide empirical validation to previous theoretical predictions about how ecosystem disruptions can have meaningful social costs.
  [Frank, E. (2024) The economic impacts of ecosystem disruptions: Costs from substituting biological pest control, Science. Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg0344.]
• The molecular determinants of pesticide sensitivity in bee pollinators
  Bees carry out vital ecosystem services by pollinating both wild and economically important crop plants. However, while performing this function, bee pollinators may encounter potentially harmful xenobiotics in the environment such as pesticides (fungicides, herbicides and insecticides). Understanding the key factors that influence the toxicological outcomes of bee exposure to these chemicals, in isolation or combination, is essential to safeguard their health and the ecosystem services they provide. In this regard, recent work using toxicogenomic and phylogenetic approaches has begun to identify, at the molecular level, key determinants of pesticide sensitivity in bee pollinators. These include detoxification systems that convert pesticides to less toxic forms and key residues in insecticide target-sites that underlie species-specific insecticide selectivity. Here we review this emerging body of research and summarise the state of knowledge of the molecular determinants of pesticide sensitivity in bee pollinators. We identify gaps in our knowledge for future research and examine how an understanding of the genetic basis of bee sensitivity to pesticides can be leveraged to, a) predict and avoid negative bee-pesticide interactions and facilitate the future development of pest-selective bee-safe insecticides, and b) inform traditional effect assessment approaches in bee pesticide risk assessment and address issues of ecotoxicological concern.
  [Bass, C. et al (2024) The molecular determinants of pesticide sensitivity in bee pollinators, Science of The Total Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724003097.]
• The Role of Biodiversity in Agricultural Resilience: Protecting Ecosystem Services for Sustainable Food Production
  Biodiversity plays a fundamental role in enhancing agricultural resilience and sustaining food production by supporting critical ecosystem services. A diverse array of species within agroecosystems, from crops and livestock to soil organisms and pollinators, contributes to the stability, productivity, and adaptability of farming systems. This biodiversity-driven resilience is essential for mitigating the impacts of climate change, pests, diseases, and resource scarcity, which pose significant threats to global food security. Agricultural systems rich in biodiversity benefit from improved soil fertility, enhanced pollination, natural pest control, and water regulation, all of which reduce dependence on external inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Moreover, maintaining genetic diversity within crops and livestock strengthens resilience against environmental stressors and promotes long-term sustainability. However, modern intensive agricultural practices, including monocropping and the overuse of agrochemicals, have resulted in significant biodiversity loss, compromising ecosystem health. This article explores the role of biodiversity in agricultural resilience, examines the threats posed by conventional farming practices, and discusses strategies for integrating biodiversity into agricultural systems to protect ecosystem services. By fostering biodiversity, farmers and policymakers can enhance the sustainability and resilience of agricultural landscapes, contributing to global food security in a changing climate.
  [Christianah, D. and Folarin, I. (2024) The Role of Biodiversity in Agricultural Resilience: Protecting Ecosystem Services for Sustainable Food Production, International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384848907_The_Role_of_Biodiversity_in_Agricultural_Resilience_Pr]
• The social costs of pesticides: a meta-analysis of the experimental and stated preference literature
  Pesticide use poses major public health risks and raises environmental concerns globally. We synthesize three decades of stated preferences and experimental approaches that estimate the social costs of pesticide use through consumer and farmer willingness-to-pay (WTP) to prevent or reduce the risks involved. We contribute to the existing literature by demonstrating that the social costs of pesticides vary significantly depending on risk types and levels, where they occur, who is exposed and their risk aversion. The main conclusion is that there exists no single global value estimate for the social costs of pesticide use, there is widespread variation in existing value estimates. Consumers and farmers worldwide share concerns about pesticide risks to their health and the environment. However, there is a need to raise awareness about actual risk exposure levels and public health impacts. Leaving this information out in valuation studies significantly reduces WTP. Equally important is the need to further harmonize stated and revealed preference valuation research design and reporting to facilitate the application of previous study findings to new policy and decision-making contexts.
  [Rufo, E., Brouwer, R. and van Beukering, P. (2024) ‘The social costs of pesticides: A meta-analysis of the experimental and stated preference literature’, Scientific Reports, 14(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-024-83298-3. ]
• Cetaceans as bio-indicators revealed the increased risks of triclosan exposure and associated thyroid hormone disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  The global surge in disinfection practices from the COVID-19 response has raised concerns about the marine exposure to the hazardous ingredients in disinfectant products, including triclosan (TCS) and triclocarban (TCC). However, there are very limited studies on the response of marine TCS and TCC (TCs) loading to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we used cetaceans as bio-indicators for a long-term retrospective analysis of TCs loading to the South China Sea (SCS) between 2004 and 2022. Hepatic TCs was 100% detected in all nine cetacean species (n = 120). Interestingly, TCS concentrations decreased in Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (IPHD) before the pandemic from 2010 to 2017. However, after 2019, TCS concentrations in IPHD significantly increased several-fold. Similarly, post-pandemic TCS concentrations in Indo-Pacific finless porpoises (IPFP) and two fish species were significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. There were significant relationships between thyroid hormones (THs) and TCs in IPHD and IPFP, suggesting that increased TCs may worsen the interference of THs homeostasis and nutritional conditions in cetaceans. These findings demonstrate the profound impact of the surging use of TCs-containing products from the COVID-19 response on marine ecosystems.
  [Guo, Y., Shi, W., Liu, Z., Sun, X. and Wu, Y., 2023. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 459, p.132289.]
• Characterization of Sulfoxaflor and Its Metabolites on Survival, Growth, Reproduction, Biochemical Markers, and Transcription of Genes of Daphnia magna
  Sulfoxaflor is a promising neonicotinoid. However, the negative implications of sulfoxaflor on nontarget aquatic organisms have been rarely studied. In this study, the risks of sulfoxaflor and its main metabolites X11719474 and X11519540 on Daphnia magna were characterized, including acute toxicity, reproduction, swimming behavior, biochemical markers, and gene transcription. Acute toxicity measurements indicated that X11719474 and X11519540 have high toxicity than the parent compound sulfoxaflor. Chronic exposure reduced reproduction and delayed the birth of the firstborn D. magna. Swimming behavior monitoring showed that exposure to three compounds stimulated swimming behavior. The induction of catalase, superoxide dismutase, and acetylcholinesterase activities was observed with oxidative stress, whereas malondialdehyde content was remarkably increased with exposure to sulfoxaflor, X11719474, and X11519540. Moreover, transcriptomics profiles showed that sulfoxaflor, X11719474, and X11519540 induced KEGG pathways related to cellular processes, organismal systems, and metabolisms. The findings present valuable insights into the prospective hazards of these pesticides and emphasize the critical importance of conducting a systematic evaluation of combining antecedents and their metabolites.
  [Yuan, T., Jiao, H., Ai, L., Chen, Y., Hu, D. and Lu, P., 2023. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 71(16), pp.6424-6433.]
• Global change drives phenological and spatial shifts in Central European longhorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) during the past 150 years
  Temperature increases and land-use changes induce altered annual activity periods of arthropods. However, sufficiently resolved long-term data sets (> 100 years) are mostly missing. We use a data set of longhorn beetle records (71 species) collected in Luxembourg 1864–2014. Increase of annual temperatures was significantly correlated with an earlier annual appearance. Forty-four species present before and after 1980 appeared on average 8.2 days earlier in the year in the more recent period. Since 1950, the estimated shift was 0.26 days per year. Increase of temperature in spring (March–June) preponed the first appearance of beetles by on average 9.6 days per 1 °C. We found significant changes in the composition of beetle communities, with a net gain in species richness during the last 40 years. Eleven species recorded only after 1997 were characterized by comparatively early annual appearance. Smaller beetles tended to appear earlier in the year in comparison to large-bodied species. Shifts in phenology did not correlate with species Red List status. As also demonstrated by our data, climate change in general affects insect phenologies and changes species composition. However, land-use change has taken place in parallel with climate change. Both aspects of global change are influencing the changes in longhorn beetle occurrences in Luxemburg in their combination. This might be most clearly reflected in the strong decrease of species with continental climate niches dwelling in old-growth deciduous forests that apparently are threatened by the loss of these habitats and increasing spring temperatures.
  [Vitali, F., Habel, J.C., Ulrich, W. et al. Global change drives phenological and spatial shifts in Central European longhorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) during the past 150 years. Oecologia 202, 577–587 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05417-7]
• Glyphosate-based formulation affects Tetragonisca angustula worker’s locomotion, behavior and biology
  Declining bee populations diminish pollination services, damaging plant and agricultural biodiversity. One of the causes of this decline is the use of pesticides. Pesticides with glyphosate as the main active ingredient are among the most used pesticides worldwide, being the most used in Brazil. This study determined the 24 and 48 h LD50 (median lethal dose) of the herbicide’s glyphosate-based formulation by ingestion, identified sublethal doses, and investigated its effects on the locomotion and behavior of Tetragonisca angustula workers. The LD50 found indicates that a glyphosate-based formulation is highly toxic to T. angustula. The doses applied, including concentrations found in nature, caused death, motor changes (decreased speed and tremors), excessive self-cleaning, and disorientation (return to light and stop). Although we did not test for pollination effects, we can infer from our results that this formulation can negatively affect the pollination activity of T. angustula. Evaluation of the toxicity and sublethal effects of pesticides on bees contributes to a better understanding of their harmful effects on hives and allows for the development of strategies to reduce these impacts.
  [Prado, I.S., da Rocha, A.A., Silva, L.A. and Gonzalez, V.C., 2023. Ecotoxicology, 32(4), pp.513-524.]
• Haematological and biochemical toxicity in freshwater fish Clarias gariepinus and Oreochromis niloticus following pulse exposure to atrazine, mancozeb, chlorpyrifos, lambda-cyhalothrin, and their combination
  Transient exposures to high or low concentrations of a single or mixture of pesticides are common in aquatic organisms. Routine toxicity tests disregard transient exposures and the influence of time when examining the toxicity of contaminants. This study investigated the haematological and biochemical responses of juvenile C. gariepinus and O. niloticus to pesticide pulse exposure using three exposure patterns. The patterns include 4-hour pulse exposure to a high pesticide concentration, then 28 days of depuration, continuous exposure to a low pesticide concentration for 28 days, and 4-hour pulse exposure to a high concentration followed by continuous exposure to a low pesticide concentration for 28 days. On days 1, 14, and 28, fish samples were collected for haematological and biochemical analysis. Results showed that red blood cell count, packed cell volume, haemoglobin, platelet count, total protein, and sodium ion decreased, while white blood cell count, total cholesterol, bilirubin, urea, and potassium ion increased in both fish species after pulse, continuous and pulse & continuous exposure to the pesticides (p < 0.05). However, pulse exposure to the pesticides did not significantly affect alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase activity, and creatinine levels. The changes in these biomarkers indicate that 4-hour pulse exposure to high concentration was as hazardous as 24-hour continuous exposure to low pesticide concentration (p > 0.05). The toxic effects of pulse exposure were largely reversible by day 14. Using C. gariepinus and O. niloticus, this study shows that brief exposure to high pesticide pesticides was as hazardous as continuous pesticide exposure.
  [Kanu, K.C., Okoboshi, A.C. and Otitoloju, A.A., 2023. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C: Toxicology & Pharmacology, 270, p.109643.]
• Less overall, but more of the same: drivers of insect population trends lead to community homogenization
  The continuing decline in the diversity and biomass of insects and other arthropods has caused great concern not only among scientists, but also among society, policymakers and stakeholders. A major reason for this is that many ecosystem services depend on diverse insect communities. Despite numerous studies on the dynamics of insect communities, their causes are still not fully understood. Rather than focusing on additional evidence of population declines, this special feature addresses the causes and consequences of population and diversity trends, aiming at a better mechanistic understanding of the observed dynamics.
  [Gossner Martin M., Menzel Florian and Simons Nadja K. (2023) Less overall, but more of the same: drivers of insect population trends lead to community homogenization, Biol. Lett.1920230007 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0007]
• Mixture effects of thiamethoxam and seven pesticides with different modes of action on honey bees (Aplis mellifera)
  Even though honey bees in the field are routinely exposed to a complex mixture of many different agrochemicals, few studies have surveyed toxic effects of pesticide mixtures on bees. To elucidate the interactive actions of pesticides on crop pollinators, we determined the individual and joint toxicities of thiamethoxam (THI) and other seven pesticides [dimethoate (DIM), methomyl (MET), zeta-cypermethrin (ZCY), cyfluthrin (CYF), permethrin (PER), esfenvalerate (ESF) and tetraconazole (TET)] to honey bees (Aplis mellifera) with feeding toxicity test. Results from the 7-days toxicity test implied that THI elicited the highest toxicity with a LC50 data of 0.25 (0.20–0.29) μg mL−1, followed by MET and DIM with LC50 data of 4.19 (3.58–4.88) and 5.30 (4.65–6.03) μg mL−1, respectively. By comparison, pyrethroids and TET possessed relatively low toxicities with their LC50 data from the range of 33.78 (29.12–38.39) to 1125 (922.4–1,442) μg mL−1. Among 98 evaluated THI-containing binary to octonary mixtures, 29.59% of combinations exhibited synergistic effects. In contrast, 18.37% of combinations exhibited antagonistic effects on A. mellifera. Moreover, 54.8% pesticide combinations incorporating THI and TET displayed synergistic toxicities to the insects. Our findings emphasized that the coexistence of several pesticides might induce enhanced toxicity to honey bees. Overall, our results afforded worthful toxicological information on the combined actions of neonicotinoids and current-use pesticides on honey bees, which could accelerate farther comprehend on the possible detriments of other pesticide mixtures in agro-environment.
  [Li, W. et al. (2023) Mixture effects of thiamethoxam and seven pesticides with different modes of action on honey bees (Aplis mellifera), Scientific Reports. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-29837-w#ref-CR30. ]
• Mutilation of the tree of life via mass extinction of animal genera
  We are in the sixth mass extinction event. Unlike the previous five, this one is caused by the overgrowth of a single species, Homo sapiens. Although the episode is often viewed as an unusually fast (in evolutionary time) loss of species, it is much more threatening, because beyond that loss, it is causing rapid mutilation of the tree of life, where entire branches (collections of species, genera, families, and so on) and the functions they perform are being lost. It is changing the trajectory of evolution globally and destroying the conditions that make human life possible. It is an irreversible threat to the persistence of civilization and the livability of future environments for H. sapiens. Instant corrective actions are required.
  [Ceballos, G. and Ehrlich, P. (2023) Mutilation of the tree of life via mass extinction of animal genera, PNAS. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2306987120. ]
• Neonicotinoid mixture alters trophic interactions in a freshwater aquatic invertebrate community
  Neonicotinoids are increasingly and widely used systemic insecticides in agriculture, residential applications, and elsewhere. These pesticides can sometimes occur in small water bodies in exceptionally high concentrations, leading to downstream non-target aquatic toxicity. Although insects appear to be the most sensitive group to neonicotinoids, other aquatic invertebrates may also be affected. Most existing studies focus on single-insecticide exposure and very little is known concerning the impact of neonicotinoid mixtures on aquatic invertebrates at the community level. To address this data gap and explore community-level effects, we performed an outdoor mesocosm experiment that tested the effect of a mixture of three common neonicotinoids (formulated imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam) on an aquatic invertebrate community. Exposure to the neonicotinoid mixture induced a top-down cascading effect on insect predators and zooplankton, ultimately increasing phytoplankton. Our results highlight complexities of mixture toxicity occurring in the environment that may be underestimated with traditional mono-specific toxicological approaches.
  [Duchet, C., Hou, F., Sinclair, C. A., Tian, Z., Kraft, A., Kolar, V., Kolodziej, E. P., McIntyre, J. K., & Stark, J. D. (2023). Neonicotinoid mixture alters trophic interactions in a freshwater aquatic invertebrate community. The Science of the total environment, 897, 165419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165419]
• Neonicotinoids: Still present in farmland birds despite their ban
  Neonicotinoids (neonics) are the most widely used insecticides worldwide and are considered to be of low risk to non-target organisms such as vertebrates. Further, they are reported to be rapidly excreted and metabolized, reducing their potential toxicity. Nevertheless, growing evidence of adverse effects of neonics on farmland bird species raise questions about the purported harmless nature of these pesticides. We attempted to search for pesticide residues in species of different trophic levels and at different life stages, by using multiple bird monitoring programs on a Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platform. Three passerine birds-the blackbird (Turdus merula), cirl bunting (Emberiza cirlus), and common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)-that feed on seeds and invertebrates were monitored during their reproductive period, and the grey partridge (Perdix perdix) that feeds on seeds was monitored during its wintering period. We also monitored chicks of an apex predator-the Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus)-that preys mostly upon common voles but also upon insects. We found that the birds' blood samples showed presence of residues of five neonics: three banned since 2018 in France-clothianidin, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam-and two-dinotefuran and nitenpyram-used for veterinary purposes only. While none of these neonics was detected in blackbirds, all were present in grey partridges. Clothianidin was detected in all species, except blackbirds. Concentrations of the three banned neonics were similar or higher than concentrations found in birds monitored elsewhere before the ban. These findings raise questions about the persistence of neonics within the environment and the mode of exposure to wild fauna. Future investigations on the sublethal effects of these neonics on life-history traits of these farmland birds may help in providing a better understanding of the effects of exposure of bird populations to these insecticides, and also to the consequent effect on human health.
  [Fuentes, E., Gaffard, A., Rodrigues, A., Millet, M., Bretagnolle, V., Moreau, J. and Monceau, K., 2023. Chemosphere, 321, p.138091.]
• Overcoming the coupled climate and biodiversity crises and their societal impacts
  Earth’s biodiversity and human societies face pollution, overconsumption of natural resources, urbanization, demographic shifts, social and economic inequalities, and habitat loss, many of which are exacerbated by climate change. Here, we review links among climate, biodiversity, and society and develop a roadmap toward sustainability. These include limiting warming to 1.5°C and effectively conserving and restoring functional ecosystems on 30 to 50% of land, freshwater, and ocean “scapes.” We envision a mosaic of interconnected protected and shared spaces, including intensively used spaces, to strengthen self-sustaining biodiversity, the capacity of people and nature to adapt to and mitigate climate change, and nature’s contributions to people. Fostering interlinked human, ecosystem, and planetary health for a livable future urgently requires bold implementation of transformative policy interventions through interconnected institutions, governance, and social systems from local to global levels.
  [Pörtner, H. et al. (2023) Overcoming the coupled climate and biodiversity crises and their societal impacts, Science. Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl4881. ]
• Pest suppression by bats and management strategies to favour it: a global review
  Fighting insect pests is a major challenge for agriculture worldwide, and biological control and integrated pest management constitute well-recognised, cost-effective ways to prevent and overcome this problem. Bats are important arthropod predators globally and, in recent decades, an increasing number of studies have focused on the role of bats as natural enemies of agricultural pests. This review assesses the state of knowledge of the ecosystem services provided by bats as pest consumers at a global level and provides recommendations that may favour the efficiency of pest predation by bats. Through a systematic review, we assess evidence for predation, the top-down effect of bats on crops and the economic value of ecosystem services these mammals provide, describing the different methodological approaches used in a total of 66 reviewed articles and 18 agroecosystem types. We also provide a list of detailed conservation measures and management recommendations found in the scientific literature that may favour the delivery of this important ecosystem service, including actions aimed at restoring bat populations in agroecosystems. The most frequent recommendations include increasing habitat heterogeneity, providing additional roosts, and implementing laws to protect bats and reduce agrochemical use. However, very little evidence is available on the direct consequences of these practices on bat insectivory in farmland. Additionally, through a second in-depth systematic review of scientific articles focused on bat diet and, as part of the ongoing European Cost Action project CA18107, we provide a complete list of 2308 documented interactions between bat species and their respective insect pest prey. These pertain to 81 bat species belonging to 36 different genera preying upon 760 insect pests from 14 orders in agroecosystems and other habitats such as forest or urban areas. The data set is publicly available and updatable.
  [Tuneu-Corral, C., Puig-Montserrat, X., Riba-Bertolín, D., Russo, D., Rebelo, H., Cabeza, M. and López-Baucells, A. (2023), Pest suppression by bats and management strategies to favour it: a global review. Biol Rev, 98: 1564-1582. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12967]
• Pesticide contamination of bird species from Doñana National Park (southwestern Spain): Temporal trends (1999-2021) and reproductive impacts
  Doñana National Park (DNP) is a protected area renowned for hosting a wide variety of birds. However, the agricultural practices in its surroundings might cause pesticide contamination of the park biota. This work aimed to assess temporal trends of a wide variety of pesticides, including organochlorine (OCPs), organophosphate (OPPs) and pyrethroid (PYRs) pesticides, in bird eggs collected for more than twenty years (1999-2021) in DNP. Twenty-six pesticides were detected, being 4,4'-DDE the most frequently detected and also the one with the highest concentrations (up to 2.55 μg g-1 ww), exceeding in some cases the values usually reported to cause detrimental health and reproductive effects in avian species. An overall decreasing trend of OCPs was observed. In contrast, an apparent increase in PYRs was detected from 2013 onwards, especially for fenvalerate, whose median concentration was 3-5 orders of magnitude higher in the most recent samples. Moreover, other pesticides such as oxadiazon, oxyfluorfen and fenitrothion were first detected in 2021 samples. Finally, two variables estimating the cumulative impact of pesticides significantly decreased the breeding performance of a top predator such as the booted eagle. Therefore, it is essential to control the use of pesticides in the agricultural practices surrounding DNP and to study their potential negative impact on the bird populations breeding in this protected area.
  [Peris, A., Baos, R., Martínez, A., Sergio, F., Hiraldo, F. and Eljarrat, E., Available at SSRN 4312955.]
• Pesticides and Parabens Contaminating Aquatic Environment: Acute and Sub-Chronic Toxicity towards Early-Life Stages of Freshwater Fish and Amphibians
  Pesticides and personal care products are two very important groups of contaminants posing a threat to the aquatic environment and the organisms living in it.. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the effects of widely used pesticides and parabens on aquatic non-target biota such as fish (using model organisms Danio rerio and Cyprinus carpio) and amphibians (using model organism Xenopus laevis) using a wide range of endpoints. The first part of the experiment was focused on the embryonal toxicity of three widely used pesticides (metazachlor, prochloraz, and 4-chloro-2-methyl phenoxy acetic acid) and three parabens (methylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben) with D. rerio, C. carpio, and X. laevis embryos. An emphasis was placed on using mostly sub-lethal concentrations that are partially relevant to the environmental concentrations of the substances studied. In the second part of the study, an embryo-larval toxicity test with C. carpio was carried out with prochloraz using concentrations 0.1, 1, 10, 100, and 1000 µg/L. The results of both parts of the study show that even the low, environmentally relevant concentrations of the chemicals tested are often able to affect the expression of genes that play either a prominent role in detoxification and sex hormone production or indicate cell stress or, in case of prochloraz, to induce genotoxicity.
  [Medkova, D., Hollerova, A., Riesova, B., Blahova, J., Hodkovicova, N., Marsalek, P., Doubkova, V., Weiserova, Z., Mares, J., Faldyna, M. and Tichy, F., 2023. Toxics, 11(4), p.333.]
• Predicting the environmental fates of emerging contaminants: Synergistic effects in ozone reactions of nitrogen-containing alkenes
  While nitro and amino alkenes are common in pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and munitions, their environmental fates are not well known. Ozone is a ubiquitous atmospheric oxidant for alkenes, but the synergistic effects of nitrogen-containing groups on the reactions have not been measured. The kinetics and products of ozonolysis of a series of model compounds with different combinations of these functional groups have been measured in the condensed phase using stopped-flow and mass spectrometry methods. Rate constants span about six orders of magnitude with activation energies ranging from 4.3 to 28.2 kJ mol-1. Vinyl nitro groups substantially decrease the reactivity, while amino groups have the opposite effect. The site of the initial ozone attack is highly structure dependent, consistent with local ionization energy calculations. The reaction of the neonicotinoid pesticide nitenpyram, which forms toxic N-nitroso compounds, was consistent with model compounds, confirming the utility of model compounds for assessing environmental fates of these emerging contaminants.
  [Wang, X., Wang, W., Wingen, L.M., Perraud, V., Ezell, M.J., Gable, J., Poulos, T.L. and Finlayson-Pitts, B.J., 2023. Science Advances, 9(9), p.eade9609.]
• The effects of glyphosate, pure or in herbicide formulation, on bumble bees and their gut microbial communities
  The widespread use of glyphosate-based formulations to eliminate unwanted vegetation has increased concerns regarding their effects on non-target organisms, such as honey bees and their gut microbial communities. These effects have been associated with both glyphosate and co-formulants, but it is still unknown whether they translate to other bee species. In this study, we tested whether glyphosate, pure or in herbicide formulation, can affect the gut microbiota and survival rates of the eastern bumble bee, Bombus impatiens. We performed mark-recapture experiments with bumble bee workers from four different commercial colonies, which were exposed to field relevant concentrations of glyphosate or a glyphosate-based formulation (0.01 mM to 1 mM). After a 5-day period of exposure, we returned the bees to their original colonies, and they were sampled at days 0, 3 and 7 post-exposure to investigate changes in microbial community and microbiota resilience by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and quantitative PCR. We found that exposure to glyphosate, pure or in herbicide formulation, reduced the relative abundance of a beneficial bee gut bacterium, Snodgrassella, in bees from two of four colonies when compared to control bees at day 0 post-exposure, but this reduction became non-significant at days 3 and 7 post-exposure, suggesting microbiota resilience. We did not find significant changes in total bacteria between control and exposed bees. Moreover, we observed an overall trend in decreased survival rates in bumble bees exposed to 1 mM herbicide formulation during the 7-day post-exposure period, suggesting a potential negative effect of this formulation on bumble bees.
  [Motta, E.V. and Moran, N.A., 2023. Science of The Total Environment, 872, p.162102.]
• Time to Treat the Climate and Nature Crisis as One Indivisible Global Health Emergency
  Over 200 health journals call on the United Nations, political leaders, and health professionals to recognize that climate change and biodiversity loss are one indivisible crisis and must be tackled together to preserve health and avoid catastrophe. This overall environmental crisis is now so severe as to be a global health emergency.

  The world is currently responding to the climate crisis and the nature crisis as if they were separate challenges. This is a dangerous mistake. The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change is about to be held in Dubai while the 16th COP on biodiversity is due to be held in Turkey in 2024. The research communities that provide the evidence for the 2 COPs are unfortunately largely separate, but they were brought together for a workshop in 2020 when they concluded that “Only by considering climate and biodiversity as parts of the same complex problem…can solutions be developed that avoid maladaptation and maximize the beneficial outcomes.”

  As the health world has recognized with the development of the concept of planetary health, the natural world is made up of one overall interdependent system. Damage to one subsystem can create feedback that damages another—for example, drought, wildfires, floods, and the other effects of rising global temperatures destroy plant life and lead to soil erosion and so inhibit carbon storage, which means more global warming. Climate change is set to overtake deforestation and other land-use change as the primary driver of nature loss.

  Nature has a remarkable power to restore. For example, deforested land can revert to forest through natural regeneration, and marine phytoplankton, which act as natural carbon stores, turn over 1 billion tons of photosynthesizing biomass every 8 days. Indigenous land and sea management has a particularly important role to play in regeneration and continuing care.

  Restoring one subsystem can help another—for example, replenishing soil could help remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere on a vast scale. But actions that may benefit one subsystem can harm another—for example, planting forests with one type of tree can remove carbon dioxide from the air but can damage the biodiversity that is fundamental to healthy ecosystems.
  [Abbasi K, Ali P, Barbour V, et al. Time to Treat the Climate and Nature Crisis as One Indivisible Global Health Emergency. JAMA. 2023;330(20):1958–1960. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.20840]

• Trophodynamics of halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs) in aquatic food webs
  Halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs) represent hazardous and persistent compounds characterized by their capacity to accumulate within organisms and endure in the environment. These substances are frequently transmitted through aquatic food webs, engendering potential hazards to ecosystems and human well-being. The trophodynamics of HOPs in aquatic food webs has garnered worldwide attention within the scientific community. Despite comprehensive research endeavors, the prevailing trajectory of HOPs, whether inclined toward biomagnification or biodilution within global aquatic food webs, remains unresolved. Furthermore, while numerous studies have probed the variables influencing the trophic magnification factor (TMF), the paramount determinant remains elusive. Collating a compendium of pertinent literature encompassing TMFs from the Web of Science between 1994 and 2023, our analysis underscores the disparities in attention accorded to legacy HOPs compared to emerging counterparts. A discernible pattern of biomagnification characterizes the behavior of HOPs within aquatic food webs. Geographically, the northern hemisphere, including Asia, Europe, and North America, has demonstrated greater biomagnification than its southern hemisphere counterparts. Utilizing a boosted regression tree (BRT) approach, we reveal that the food web length and type emerge as pivotal determinants influencing TMFs. This review provides a valuable basis for gauging ecological and health risks, thereby facilitating the formulation of robust standards for managing aquatic environments.
  [Xie, J. et al. (2023) Trophodynamics of halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs) in aquatic food webs, Science of The Total Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969723050519. ]
• Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impacts
  Modelled dietary scenarios often fail to reflect true dietary practice and do not account for variation in the environmental burden of food due to sourcing and production methods. Here we link dietary data from a sample of 55,504 vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters with food-level data on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, eutrophication risk and potential biodiversity loss from a review of 570 life-cycle assessments covering more than 38,000 farms in 119 countries. Our results include the variation in food production and sourcing that is observed in the review of life-cycle assessments. All environmental indicators showed a positive association with amounts of animal-based food consumed. Dietary impacts of vegans were 25.1% (95% uncertainty interval, 15.1–37.0%) of high meat-eaters (≥100 g total meat consumed per day) for greenhouse gas emissions, 25.1% (7.1–44.5%) for land use, 46.4% (21.0–81.0%) for water use, 27.0% (19.4–40.4%) for eutrophication and 34.3% (12.0–65.3%) for biodiversity. At least 30% differences were found between low and high meat-eaters for most indicators. Despite substantial variation due to where and how food is produced, the relationship between environmental impact and animal-based food consumption is clear and should prompt the reduction of the latter.
  [Scarborough, P. et al. (2023) Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show Discrepant Environmental impacts, Nature Food. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00795-w?fromPaywallRec=false. ]
• Forest hoverfly community collapse: Abundance and species richness drop over four decades
  To study insect decline, an important threat to biodiversity, long-term datasets are needed. Here we present a study of hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae) abundance and diversity in a Dutch forest, surrounded by other forests, and analyse the variation in insect numbers over four decades. Between 1982 and 2021, abundance decreased by 80%. Until 1990, abundance showed a strong decrease of 10.9% per year, mainly in nationally rare species with carnivorous larvae exposed to air. From 1990, abundance stabilised, whereas from 2000, a second period of strong decline of 9.0% per year occurred, mainly in very common species. Species richness also declined strongly between 1979 and 2021: the total number of species observed in five monitoring days dropped by 44% over those 43 years. The characteristic set of dry-forest hoverfly species disappeared over four decades. The number of nationally rare species observed at the study site declined from 19 to 9 early on, in a period (1979–1984) that coincided with intense nitrogen input and acidification caused by agriculture in the same region. The more recent decline is likely also caused by factors from outside the forest, as forest management and conditions remained constant. Continued influx of nutrients and pesticides at a regional level, as well as climate change are possible causes of the decline. Research is needed to quantify their relative effects.
  [Barendregt, A., Zeegers, T., van Steenis, W. & Jongejans, E. (2022) Forest hoverfly community collapse: Abundance and species richness drop over four decades. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 15(5), 510–521. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12577]
• Soil protists: An untapped microbial resource of agriculture and environmental importance
  Protists are essential components of soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. They play a vital role in the microbial food web as consumers of bacteria, fungi, and other small eukaryotes and are also involved in maintaining soil fertility and plant productivity. Protists also contribute to regulating and shaping the bacterial community in terrestrial ecosystems via specific prey spectra. They play a role in plant growth promotion and plant health improvement, mostly via nutrient cycling, grazing, and the activation of bacterial genes required for plant growth and phytopathogen suppression. Thus, protists may prove to be a useful inoculant as biofertilizer and biocontrol agent. They can also be applied as model organisms as bioindicators of soil health. Despite their usefulness and essentiality, they are often forgotten and under-researched components of the soil microbiome, as most of our research focuses on bacteria and fungi. In this review, we provide an overview of the role of protists in plant productivity and plant health management and in shifts in soil bacterial community composition, as well as their roles as bioindicator. We also discuss the perspectives of knowledge gaps and future prospects to further improve soil biology. More research in soil protistology will provide insights into sustainable agriculture and environmental health alongside the study of bacteria and fungi.
  [Chandarana, K. and Amaresan, N. (2022) Soil protists: An untapped microbial resource of agriculture and environmental importance, Pedosphere. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1002016021600668. ]
• The Contribution of Desert-Dwelling Bats to Pest Control in Hyper-Arid Date Agriculture
  Over 40% of the Earth’s surface has been converted to agricultural use and agroecosystems have become important habitats for wildlife. In arid regions, intensive agriculture creates artificial oasis-like habitats due to their high irrigation inputs. Date production is one of the primary agricultural practices in the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa. Insectivorous bats are known to use agricultural areas, but the role of date plantations as their foraging habits and the importance of insectivorous bats as date bio-pest control agents are still unknown. We assessed the role of date plantations as foraging habitats for local desert bat species by acoustically recording bat activity in conventional and organic date plantations in the southern Arava Valley, Israel. In addition, we captured bats in the plantations and collected feces for DNA metabarcoding analysis to investigate the presence of pest species in their diets. We found that 12 out of the 16 known species of bats in this region frequently used both conventional and organic date plantations as foraging habitats. Species richness was highest in the organic plantation with complex ground vegetation cover. Foraging activity was not affected by plantation type or management. However, bat species richness and activity increased in all plantations during summer date harvesting. Molecular analysis confirmed that bats feed on a variety of important date pests, but the particular pests consumed and the extent of consumption varied among bat species. Our results highlight a win–win situation, whereby date plantations are an important foraging habitat for desert bats, while bats provide bio-pest control services that benefit the date plantations. Therefore, date farmers interested in bio-pest control should manage their plantations to support local desert bat populations.
  [Schäckermann, J., Morris, E. J., Alberdi, A., Razgour, O., & Korine, C. (2022). The Contribution of Desert-Dwelling Bats to Pest Control in Hyper-Arid Date Agriculture. Diversity, 14(12), 1034. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14121034]
• Agricultural intensification and climate change are rapidly decreasing insect biodiversity
  Major declines in insect biomass and diversity, reviewed here, have become obvious and well documented since the end of World War II. Here, we conclude that the spread and intensification of agriculture during the past half century is directly related to these losses. In addition, many areas, including tropical mountains, are suffering serious losses because of climate change as well. Crops currently occupy about 11% of the world’s land surface, with active grazing taking place over an additional 30%. The industrialization of agriculture during the second half of the 20th century involved farming on greatly expanded scales, monoculturing, the application of increasing amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, and the elimination of interspersed hedgerows and other wildlife habitat fragments, all practices that are destructive to insect and other biodiversity in and near the fields. Some of the insects that we are destroying, including pollinators and predators of crop pests, are directly beneficial to the crops. In the tropics generally, natural vegetation is being destroyed rapidly and often replaced with export crops such as oil palm and soybeans. To mitigate the effects of the Sixth Mass Extinction event that we have caused and are experiencing now, the following will be necessary: a stable (and almost certainly lower) human population, sustainable levels of consumption, and social justice that empowers the less wealthy people and nations of the world, where the vast majority of us live, will be necessary.
  [Raven, P. and Wagner, D. (2021) Agricultural intensification and climate change are rapidly decreasing insect biodiversity, PNAS. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2304663120. ]
• Bats provide a critical ecosystem service by consuming a large diversity of agricultural pest insects
  Biodiversity directly influences the delivery of multiple ecosystem services, most notably within agriculture. Projected future global demands for food, fiber and bioenergy will require enhancement of agricultural productivity, but favoring biodiversity-based ecosystem services generally remains underutilized in agricultural practice. In addition, agricultural intensification is a key driver of biodiversity loss. A significant obstacle preventing the adoption of ecologically sensitive practices is a lack of knowledge of the species delivering the services. Insectivorous bats have long been suggested to regulate insect pest populations and may be a critical component of biodiversity-based ecosystem services. Bats may also serve as agents of insect pest surveillance through environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring approaches. However, the biological and economic importance of bats to agriculture remains under-quantified. Here we catalogued the dietary niche of two North American bats, little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) and big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), through DNA metabarcoding of guano collected from seven roosting sites over a 26-week period. We measured the frequency of occurrence of known pest species in guano samples, compared interspecific differences in diet, and examined seasonal patterns in prey selection. Overall, we detected 653 unique prey species, 160 of which were known agricultural pests or disease vectors. Species diversity of prey species consumed varied by bat species and across the season, with big brown bats accounting for the majority of arthropod diversity detected. However, little brown bats consumed relatively more aquatic insects than big brown bats, suggesting that increased bat species richness in a landscape can amplify their net pest regulation service. Further, we hypothesized that detection probabilities of target insect pests would be higher in guano samples than in conventional survey methods. Multi-survey occupancy modeling revealed significantly lower detectability in bat guano than in conventional monitoring traps, however, highlighting important tradeoffs in selection of survey methods. Overall, the results presented here contribute to a growing evidence base supporting the role bats play in the provisioning of biodiversity-based ecosystem services.
  [Maslo, B. et al. (2021) Bats provide a critical ecosystem service by consuming a large diversity of agricultural pest insects, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880921004266. ]
• Effects of Pesticides on Biodiversity and Climate Change
  Pesticides are the biological pollutants, which are being used by the man to kill the pests for increasing the yield of many crops and insect vectors to control the spread of disease. The tremendous use of pesticides has caused severe health hazards to organisms including human beings due to climate change. Excessive use of pesticides may lead to the destruction of biodiversity. Many birds, aquatic organisms and animals are under the threat of harmful pesticides for their survival. The pesticides effects can be lessen by organizing awareness program among the farmers, special training to them regarding consequences of pesticides, their screening and monitoring methods.
  [Chaudhary, V., Arya, S. and Singh, P. (2021) Effects of Pesticides on Biodiversity and Climate Change, International Journal on Environmental Sciences. Available at: https://doi.org/10.53390/ijes.v12i2.1. ]
• Food system impacts on biodiversity loss
  — Biodiversity loss is accelerating around the world. The global rate of species extinction today is orders of magnitude higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years. — The global food system is the primary driver of this trend. Over the past 50 years, the conversion of natural ecosystems for crop production or pasture has been the principal cause of habitat loss, in turn reducing biodiversity. — Our food system has been shaped over past decades by the ‘cheaper food’ paradigm. Policies and economic structures have aimed to produce ever more food at ever lower cost. Intensified agricultural production degrades soils and ecosystems, driving down the productive capacity of land and necessitating even more intensive food production to keep pace with demand. Growing global consumption of cheaper calories and resource-intensive foods aggravates these pressures. — Current food production depends heavily on the use of inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides, energy, land and water, and on unsustainable practices such as monocropping and heavy tilling. This has reduced the variety of landscapes and habitats, threatening or destroying the breeding, feeding and/or nesting of birds, mammals, insects and microbial organisms, and crowding out many native plant species. — As a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, our food system is also driving climate change, which further degrades habitats and causes species to disperse to new locations. In turn, this brings new species into contact and competition with each other, and creates new opportunities for the emergence of infectious disease. — Without reform of our food system, biodiversity loss will continue to accelerate. Further destruction of ecosystems and habitats will threaten our ability to sustain human populations.
  [Benton, T. et al. (2021) Food system impacts on Biodiversity loss, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme. Available at: https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/2021-02-03-food-system-biodiversity-loss-benton-et-al_0.pdf. ]
• Risk of pesticide pollution at the global scale
  Pesticides are widely used to protect food production and meet global food demand but are also ubiquitous environmental pollutants, causing adverse effects on water quality, biodiversity and human health. Here we use a global database of pesticide applications and a spatially explicit environmental model to estimate the world geography of environmental pollution risk caused by 92 active ingredients in 168 countries. We considered a region to be at risk of pollution if pesticide residues in the environment exceeded the no-effect concentrations, and to be at high risk if residues exceeded this by three orders of magnitude. We find that 64% of global agricultural land (approximately 24.5 million km2) is at risk of pesticide pollution by more than one active ingredient, and 31% is at high risk. Among the high-risk areas, about 34% are in high-biodiversity regions, 5% in water-scarce areas and 19% in low- and lower-middle-income nations. We identify watersheds in South Africa, China, India, Australia and Argentina as high-concern regions because they have high pesticide pollution risk, bear high biodiversity and suffer from water scarcity. Our study expands earlier pesticide risk assessments as it accounts for multiple active ingredients and integrates risks in different environmental compartments at a global scale.
  [Tang, F.H.M., Lenzen, M., McBratney, A. et al. Risk of pesticide pollution at the global scale. Nat. Geosci. 14, 206–210 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00712-5]
• The neonicotinoid thiamethoxam impairs male fertility in solitary bees, Osmia cornuta
  The ongoing loss of global biodiversity is endangering ecosystem functioning and human food security. While environmental pollutants are well known to reduce fertility, the potential effects of common neonicotinoid insecticides on insect fertility remain poorly understood. Here, we show that field-realistic neonicotinoid exposure can drastically impact male insect fertility. In the laboratory, male and female solitary bees Osmia cornuta were exposed to four concentrations of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam to measure survival, food consumption, and sperm traits. Despite males being exposed to higher dosages of thiamethoxam, females revealed an overall increased hazard rate for survival; suggesting sex-specific differences in toxicological sensitivity. All tested sublethal concentrations (i.e., 1.5, 4.5 and 10 ng g−1) reduced sperm quantity by 57% and viability by 42% on average, with the lowest tested concentration leading to a reduction in total living sperm by 90%. As the tested sublethal concentrations match estimates of global neonicotinoid pollution, this reveals a plausible mechanism for population declines, thereby reflecting a realistic concern. An immediate reduction in environmental pollutants is required to decelerate the ongoing loss of biodiversity.
  [Strobl, Verena & Albrecht, Matthias & Villamar Bouza, Laura & Tosi, Simone & Neumann, Peter & Straub, Lars. (2021). The neonicotinoid thiamethoxam impairs male fertility in solitary bees, Osmia cornuta. Environmental Pollution. 284. 117106. 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117106. ]
• Greater stability of carbon capture in species-rich natural forests compared to species-poor plantations
  Tree plantations and forest restoration are leading strategies for enhancing terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration and mitigating climate change. While it is well established that species-rich natural forests offer superior C sequestering benefits relative to short-rotation commercial monoculture plantations, differences in rates of C capture and storage between longer-lived plantations (commercial or non-commercial) and natural forests remain unclear. Using a natural experiment in the Western Ghats of India, where late-20th century conservation laws prohibited timber extraction from monodominant plantations and natural forests within nature reserves, we assessed forests and plantations for aboveground C storage and the magnitude and temporal stability of rates of photosynthetic C capture (gross primary production). Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that species-rich forests show greater temporal stability of C capture, and are more resistant to drought, than monodominant plantations. Carbon stocks in monodominant teak (Tectona grandis) and Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) plantations were 30%–50% lower than in natural evergreen forests, but differed little from moist-deciduous forests. Plantations had 4%–9% higher average C capture rates (estimated using the Enhanced Vegetation Index–EVI) than natural forests during wet seasons, but up to 29% lower C capture during dry seasons across the 2000–18 period. In both seasons, the rate of C capture by plantations was less stable across years, and decreased more during drought years (i.e. lower resistance to drought), compared to forests. Thus, even as certain monodominant plantations could match natural forests for C capture and storage potential, plantations are unlikely to match the stability–and hence reliability–of C capture exhibited by forests, particularly in the face of increasing droughts and other climatic perturbations. Promoting natural forest regeneration and/or multi-species native tree plantations instead of plantation monocultures could therefore benefit climate change mitigation efforts, while offering valuable co-benefits for biodiversity conservation and other ecosystem services.
  [Osuri, A. et al. (2020) Greater stability of carbon capture in species-rich natural forests compared to species-poor plantations, Environmental Research Letters. Available at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5f75. ]
• How do pesticides affect bats? – A brief review of recent publications
  Increased agricultural production has been increased use of pesticides worldwide, which poses a threat to both human and environmental health. Recent studies suggest that several non-target organisms, from bees to mammals, show a wide variety of toxic effects of pesticides exposure, including impaired behavior, development and reproduction. Among mammals, bats are usually a neglected taxon among ecotoxicological studies, although they play important ecological and economical roles in forest ecosystems and agriculture through to seed dispersal and insect population control. Considering their wide variety of food habits, bats are exposed to environmental pollutants through food or water contamination, or through direct skin contact in their roosting areas. In order to better understand the risk posed by pesticides to bats populations, we compiled studies that investigated the main toxicological effects of pesticides in bats, aiming at contributing to discussion about the environmental risks associated with the use of pesticides.
  [Oliveira, J.M. et al. (2020) How do pesticides affect bats? – A brief review of recent publications, Brazilian Journal of Biology. Available at: https://www.scielo.br/j/bjb/a/tnNtGd6GfzQFz6yNXNdzJPw/?lang=en. ]
• How fossil fuel-derived pesticides and plastics harm health, biodiversity, and the climate
  Three global challenges menace survival as we know it: climate change, loss of biodiversity, and chemical pollution (including endocrine-disrupting chemicals [EDCs]). These threats are more strongly interlinked than previously thought by their common origins in fossil fuels such as coal, oil, or gas, including that derived from fracking. It is well established that accumulation of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, and N2O) in the atmosphere is the main driver of climate change. However, policy makers and the general public need to better appreciate the links of each of these threats to life.
  The foremost threats are chemical pollution, plastic pollution, and loss of biodiversity, as each is largely linked to the fossil fuel industry. The argument is that not only can these threats be averted, but also by reducing our dependence on fossil fuel usage we can simultaneously mitigate and eventually reverse the current climate crisis and improve environmental wellbeing and human health. If we are to embrace these economic transitions which are so urgently required, a deeper understanding of the interlinked mechanisms is needed. These outcomes can be achieved by investing in alternative energies—eg, solar, wind, or geothermic. Development of these renewable energy sources will in turn substantially reduce biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, and plastic pollution.
  Although not all chemicals are EDCs, overexploitation of fossil fuels can be linked to atmospheric and chemical pollution, and their closely linked corollary—endocrine disruption. Food contact plastics, some pesticides, flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds, and other endocrine-disrupting compounds are derived from oil, coal, or gas. Moreover, shale gas, obtained by fracking, produces multiple EDCs.
  [Demeneix, B. (2020) How fossil fuel-derived pesticides and plastics harm health, biodiversity, and the climate, The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. Available at: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(20)30116-9/fulltext. ]
• Neonicotinoids pose undocumented threats to food webs
  
  One of the main lessons that emerged from Silent Spring (1) is that we overuse pesticides at our own peril because human and natural environments are unquestionably linked. It is time to revisit these lessons given current use patterns of neonicotinoid insecticides.
   
  Neonicotinoids pose broader risks to biodiversity and food webs than previously recognized. Serious efforts must be made to decrease the scale of their use. 
   
  Since their introduction in the early 1990s, neonicotinoids have become the most widely used insecticides in the world. Their toxicity allows less active ingredients to be used and, compared with older classes of insecticides, they appear to have relatively low toxicity to vertebrates, particularly mammals (2). Neonicotinoids have been repeatedly called “perfect” for use in crop protection (2).
   
  Yet recent research calls this perfection into doubt as neonicotinoids have become widespread environmental contaminants causing unexpected nontarget effects. In particular, researchers have found that neonicotinoids can move from treated plants to pollinators and from plants to pests to natural enemies. Worse, transmission through simple food chains portends widespread, undocumented transmission into entire food webs. We believe that neonicotinoids pose broader risks to biodiversity and food webs than previously recognized. Although further research is needed to document the ecosystem-wide transmission and consequences of neonicotinoids to establish their true costs and benefits, serious efforts must be made to decrease the scale of their use.
  
  [Frank, S.D. and Tooker, J.F. (2020) ‘Neonicotinoids pose undocumented threats to food webs’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(37), pp. 22609–22613. doi:10.1073/pnas.2017221117. ]
• Agriculturally dominated landscapes reduce bee phylogenetic diversity and pollination services
  Land-use change threatens global biodiversity and may reshape the tree of life by favoring some lineages over others. Whether phylogenetic diversity loss compromises ecosystem service delivery remains unknown. We address this knowledge gap using extensive genomic, community, and crop datasets to examine relationships among land use, pollinator phylogenetic structure, and crop production. Pollinator communities in highly agricultural landscapes contain 230 million fewer years of evolutionary history; this loss was strongly associated with reduced crop yield and quality. Our study links landscape–mediated changes in the phylogenetic structure of natural communities to the disruption of ecosystem services. Measuring conservation success by species counts alone may fail to protect ecosystem functions and the full diversity of life from which they are derived.
  [Heather Grab et al., Agriculturally dominated landscapes reduce bee phylogenetic diversity and pollination services.Science363,282-284 (2019).DOI:10.1126/science.aat6016]
• Biodiversity Decline as a Consequence of an Inappropriate Environmental Risk Assessment of Pesticides
  The widespread contamination of ecosystems with plant protection products (pesticides in this text) around the world is evident. Pesticide effects on the physiology, activity and diversity of various aquatic and terrestrial non-target organisms is addressed by numerous studies, and many new aspects are also described in a recent Frontiers Research Topic.

  We currently observe a deterioration of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, and the dramatic losses are increasingly discussed by the public. Declines of insect biomass of more than 70% in the last few decades in Germany, the halving of farmland bird populations in Europe and effects on pollinators are widely known. Out of a set of recorded parameters of agricultural intensification (such as field size, fertilizer application, landscape heterogeneity) a unique, pan-European study identified pesticide application as the responsible factor for lower biodiversity of plants, ground beetles, and birds in wheat fields. Recently, a review recognized chemical pollution including pesticides as the second most important driver for the worldwide decline in insect populations. Other drivers were habitat loss and conversion to intensive agriculture, fertilizer inputs, introduced species, and climate change.
  [Brühl, C. and Zaller, J. (2019) Biodiversity Decline as a Consequence of an Inappropriate Environmental Risk Assessment of Pesticides, Frontiers in Environmental Science. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00177/full.]

• Decline of the North American avifauna
  Species extinctions have defined the global biodiversity crisis, but extinction begins with loss in abundance of individuals that can result in compositional and functional changes of ecosystems. Using multiple and independent monitoring networks, we report population losses across much of the North American avifauna over 48 years, including once-common species and from most biomes. Integration of range-wide population trajectories and size estimates indicates a net loss approaching 3 billion birds, or 29% of 1970 abundance. A continent-wide weather radar network also reveals a similarly steep decline in biomass passage of migrating birds over a recent 10-year period. This loss of bird abundance signals an urgent need to address threats to avert future avifaunal collapse and associated loss of ecosystem integrity, function, and services.
  [Rosenberg, K. et al. (2019) Decline of the North American avifauna, Science. Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw1313.]
• Global agricultural productivity is threatened by increasing pollinator dependence without a parallel increase in crop diversification
  The global increase in the proportion of land cultivated with pollinator-dependent crops implies increased reliance on pollination services. Yet agricultural practices themselves can profoundly affect pollinator supply and pollination. Extensive monocultures are associated with a limited pollinator supply and reduced pollination, whereas agricultural diversification can enhance both. Therefore, areas where agricultural diversity has increased, or at least been maintained, may better sustain high and more stable productivity of pollinator-dependent crops. Given that >80% of all crops depend, to varying extents, on insect pollination, a global increase in agricultural pollinator dependence over recent decades might have led to a concomitant increase in agricultural diversification. We evaluated whether an increase in the area of pollinator-dependent crops has indeed been associated with an increase in agricultural diversity, measured here as crop diversity, at the global, regional, and country scales for the period 1961–2016. Globally, results show a relatively weak and decelerating rise in agricultural diversity over time that was largely decoupled from the strong and continually increasing trend in agricultural dependency on pollinators. At regional and country levels, there was no consistent relationship between temporal changes in pollinator dependence and crop diversification. Instead, our results show heterogeneous responses in which increasing pollinator dependence for some countries and regions has been associated with either an increase or a decrease in agricultural diversity. Particularly worrisome is a rapid expansion of pollinator-dependent oilseed crops in several countries of the Americas and Asia that has resulted in a decrease in agricultural diversity. In these regions, reliance on pollinators is increasing, yet agricultural practices that undermine pollination services are expanding. Our analysis has thereby identified world regions of particular concern where environmentally damaging practices associated with large-scale, industrial agriculture threaten key ecosystem services that underlie productivity, in addition to other benefits provided by biodiversity.
  [Aizen, M. et al. (2019) Global agricultural productivity is threatened by increasing pollinator dependence without a parallel increase in crop diversification, Global Change Biology. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14736. ]
• Neonicotinoids and fertilizers jointly structure naturally assembled freshwater macroinvertebrate communities
  Although it is widely acknowledged that a decline of freshwater biodiversity jeopardizes the functioning of freshwater ecosystems, the large number of (human-induced) pressures jointly acting on these systems hampers managing its biodiversity. To disentangle the magnitude and the temporal effects of these single and interacting pressures, experiments are required that study how these pressures affect the structuring of natural communities. We performed experiments with naturally assembled invertebrate communities in 36 experimental ditches to assess the single and joint effects of environmentally relevant concentrations of two commonly co-occurring stressors: fertilizer inputs and neonicotinoid insecticides, in this case thiacloprid. Specifically, we explored whether these agrochemicals result in sustained changes in community structure by inspecting divergence, convergence and short- /long-lived dissimilarity of communities, when compared to a control treatment. Our results indicate strong impacts on the abundance of different taxa by exposure to the agrochemicals. However, we found no effect of any treatment on total abundance, taxon richness or convergence/divergence (measured as beta dispersion) of the communities. Moreover, we found contrasting responses when both joint stressors were present: when considering abundance of different taxa, we observed that fertilizer additions reduced some of the thiacloprid toxicity. But when assessing the community structure, we found that exposure to both stressors consistently resulted in a more dissimilar community compared to the control. This dissimilarity was persistent up to four months after applying the agrochemicals, even though there was a turnover in taxa explaining this dissimilarity. This turnover indicates that the persistent dissimilarity can potentially be attributed to a rippling effect in the community rather than continued toxicity. Such shifts in natural freshwater invertebrate communities, months after the actual exposure, suggests that stressors may have important long-term repercussions for which may subsequently lead to changes in ecosystem functioning.
  [Barmentlo, S. H., Schrama, M., van Bodegom, P. M., de Snoo, G. R., Musters, C. J. M., & Vijver, M. G. (2019). Neonicotinoids and fertilizers jointly structure naturally assembled freshwater macroinvertebrate communities. The Science of the total environment, 691, 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.110]
• The insect apocalypse, and why it matters
  The majority of conservation efforts and public attention are focused on large, charismatic mammals and birds such as tigers, pandas and penguins, yet the bulk of animal life, whether measured by biomass, numerical abundance or numbers of species, consists of invertebrates such as insects. Arguably, these innumerable little creatures are far more important for the functioning of ecosystems than their furry or feathered brethren, but until recently we had few long-term data on their population trends. Recent studies from Germany and Puerto Rico suggest that insects may be in a state of catastrophic population collapse: the German data describe a 76% decline in biomass over 26 years, while the Puerto Rican study estimates a decline of between 75% and 98% over 35 years. Corroborative evidence, for example from butterflies in Europe and California (which both show slightly less dramatic reductions in abundance), suggest that these declines are not isolated. The causes are much debated, but almost certainly include habitat loss, chronic exposure to pesticides, and climate change. The consequences are clear; insects are integral to every terrestrial food web, being food for numerous birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians and fish, and performing vital roles such as pollination, pest control and nutrient recycling. Terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems will collapse without insects. These studies are a warning that we may have failed to appreciate the full scale and pace of environmental degradation caused by human activities in the Anthropocene.
  [Goulson, D. (2019) The insect apocalypse, and why it matters, Current Biology. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982219307961. ]
• Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers
  Biodiversity of insects is threatened worldwide. Here, we present a comprehensive review of 73 historical reports of insect declines from across the globe, and systematically assess the underlying drivers. Our work reveals dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the extinction of 40% of the world's insect species over the next few decades. In terrestrial ecosystems, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and dung beetles (Coleoptera) appear to be the taxa most affected, whereas four major aquatic taxa (Odonata, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Ephemeroptera) have already lost a considerable proportion of species. Affected insect groups not only include specialists that occupy particular ecological niches, but also many common and generalist species. Concurrently, the abundance of a small number of species is increasing; these are all adaptable, generalist species that are occupying the vacant niches left by the ones declining. Among aquatic insects, habitat and dietary generalists, and pollutant-tolerant species are replacing the large biodiversity losses experienced in waters within agricultural and urban settings. The main drivers of species declines appear to be in order of importance: i) habitat loss and conversion to intensive agriculture and urbanisation; ii) pollution, mainly that by synthetic pesticides and fertilisers; iii) biological factors, including pathogens and introduced species; and iv) climate change. The latter factor is particularly important in tropical regions, but only affects a minority of species in colder climes and mountain settings of temperate zones. A rethinking of current agricultural practices, in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices, is urgently needed to slow or reverse current trends, allow the recovery of declining insect populations and safeguard the vital ecosystem services they provide. In addition, effective remediation technologies should be applied to clean polluted waters in both agricultural and urban environments.
  [Sánchez-Bayo, F. and Wyckhuys, K. (2019) Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers, Biological Conservation. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320718313636. ]
• Acute toxicity of 6 neonicotinoid insecticides to freshwater invertebrates
  Neonicotinoids are a group of insecticides commonly used in agriculture. Due to their high water solubility, neonicotinoids can be transported to surface waters and have the potential to be toxic to aquatic life. The present study assessed and compared the acute (48- or 96-h) toxicity of 6 neonicotinoids (acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam) to 21 laboratory-cultured and field-collected aquatic invertebrates spanning 10 aquatic arthropod orders. Test conditions mimicked species' habitat, with lentic taxa exposed under static conditions, and lotic taxa exposed under recirculating systems. Median lethal concentrations (LC50s) and median effect concentrations (EC50s; immobility) were calculated and used to construct separate lethal- and immobilization-derived species sensitivity distributions for each neonicotinoid, from which 5th percentile hazard concentrations (HC5s) were calculated. The results showed that the most sensitive invertebrates were insects from the orders Ephemeroptera (Neocloeon triangulifer) and Diptera (Chironomus dilutus), whereas cladocerans (Daphnia magna, Ceriodaphnia dubia) were the least sensitive. The HC5s were compared with neonicotinoid environmental concentrations from Ontario (Canada) monitoring studies. For all neonicotinoids except imidacloprid, the resulting hazard quotients indicated little to no hazard in terms of acute toxicity to aquatic communities in Ontario freshwater streams. For the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, a moderate hazard was found when only invertebrate immobilization, and not lethality, data were considered.
  [Raby, M., Nowierski, M., Perlov, D., Zhao, X., Hao, C., Poirier, D. G., & Sibley, P. K. (2018). Acute toxicity of 6 neonicotinoid insecticides to freshwater invertebrates. Environmental toxicology and chemistry, 37(5), 1430–1445. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4088]
• Analysis of trends and agricultural drivers of farmland bird declines in North America: A review
  Globally, agriculture has intensified during the past 50 years due to increased mechanization, changes in the timing of farming operations, grassland conversion to cropland, and increased agrochemical inputs. Birds associated with farmlands and grasslands in North America have experienced severe declines over the last several decades, prompting the need for a comprehensive review of the drivers, mechanisms and magnitude of effects on bird populations. Here we evaluated changes in North American farmland bird populations over time and conducted a systematic review and analysis of the published literature to identify the major causes. Based on North American Breeding Bird Survey data, populations of 57 of 77 (74%) farmland-associated species decreased from 1966 to 2013. Multiple species exhibited highly congruent declines during the 1960s-1980s − a period with rapid changes in farming practices to low tillage systems, heavy pesticide use and widespread conversion of grassland habitat to cropland. The most severe declines occurred in aerial insectivorous birds (average change of −39.5% from 1966 to 2013), followed by grassland (‐20.8%) and shrubland (‐16.5%) bird species. Direct agricultural drivers impacting bird abundance, survival, and reproduction include loss of natural habitats, interference from farming equipment, and direct mortality or sublethal effects from pesticide exposure. Subtle interference with behaviour or physiology are reported through indirect drivers such as reduced food supplies, sublethal pesticide toxicity, habitat fragmentation and alteration, and disturbance. Indirect effects are likely significant for many species, particularly aerial insectivores, but detailed mechanistic studies are lacking. Our review of 122 studies found that pesticides (42% of all studies), followed by habitat loss or alterations (27%), were most predominant in negatively affecting farmland birds, with pesticides (93% negative) and mowing/harvesting (81% negative) having the most consistently negative effects. Modifications to farmland management such as reducing pesticide inputs through integrated pest management and maintaining or restoring uncultivated field margins and native habitat could positively influence farmland birds without significantly reducing agricultural crop yields.
  [Stanton, R., Morrissey, C., and Clark, R. (2018) Analysis of trends and agricultural drivers of farmland bird declines in North America: A review, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016788091730525X. ]
• Decline of rare and specialist species across multiple taxonomic groups after grassland intensification and abandonment
  Traditionally managed mountain grasslands are declining as a result of abandonment or intensification of management. Based on a common chronosequence approach we investigated species compositions of 16 taxonomic groups on traditionally managed dry pastures, fertilized and irrigated hay meadows, and abandoned grasslands (larch forests). We included faunal above- and below-ground biodiversity as well as species traits (mainly rarity and habitat specificity) in our analyses. The larch forests showed the highest species number (345 species), with slightly less species in pastures (290 species) and much less in hay meadows (163 species). The proportion of rare species was highest in the pastures and lowest in hay meadows. Similar patterns were found for specialist species, i.e. species with a high habitat specificity. After abandonment, larch forests harbor a higher number of pasture species than hay meadows. These overall trends were mainly supported by spiders and vascular plants. Lichens, bryophytes and carabid beetles showed partly contrasting trends. These findings stress the importance to include a wide range of taxonomic groups in conservation studies. All in all, both abandonment and intensification had similar negative impacts on biodiversity in our study, underlining the high conservation value of Inner-Alpine dry pastures.
  [Hilpold, A., Seeber, J., Fontana, V. et al. Decline of rare and specialist species across multiple taxonomic groups after grassland intensification and abandonment. Biodivers Conserv 27, 3729–3744 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1623-x]
• I Ke Ēwe ʻĀina o Ke Kupuna: Hawaiian Ancestral Crops in Perspective
  Indigenous crops, tremendously valuable both for food security and cultural survival, are experiencing a resurgence in Hawaiʻi. These crops have been historically valued by agricultural researchers as genetic resources for breeding, while cultural knowledge, names, stories and practices persisted outside of formal educational and governmental institutions. In recent years, and following conflicts ignited over university research on and patenting of kalo (Hāloa, Colocasia esculenta), a wave of restoration activities around indigenous crop diversity, cultivation, and use has occurred through largely grassroots efforts. We situate four crops in Hawaiian cosmologies, review and compare the loss and recovery of names and cultivars, and describe present efforts to restore traditional crop biodiversity focusing on kalo, ʻuala (Ipomoea batatas), kō (Saccharum officinarum), and ʻawa (Piper methysticum). The cases together and particularly the challenges of kalo and ‘awa suggest that explicitly recognizing the sacred role such plants hold in indigenous worldviews, centering the crops’ biocultural significance, provides a foundation for better collaboration across multiple communities and institutions who work with these species. Furthermore, a research agenda that pursues a decolonizing approach and draws from more participatory methods can provide a path forward towards mutually beneficial exchange among research, indigenous, and farmer communities. We outline individual and institutional responsibilities relevant to work with indigenous crops and communities and offer this as a step towards reconciliation, understanding, and reciprocity that can ultimately work to create abundance through the restoration of ancestral crop cultivar diversity.
  [Kagawa-Viviani, A. et al. (2018) I Ke Ēwe ʻĀina o Ke Kupuna: Hawaiian Ancestral Crops in Perspective, Sustainability. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4607. ]
• A global synthesis of the effects of diversified farming systems on arthropod diversity within fields and across agricultural landscapes
  Agricultural intensification is a leading cause of global biodiversity loss, which can reduce the provisioning of ecosystem services in managed ecosystems. Organic farming and plant diversification are farm management schemes that may mitigate potential ecological harm by increasing species richness and boosting related ecosystem services to agroecosystems. What remains unclear is the extent to which farm management schemes affect biodiversity components other than species richness, and whether impacts differ across spatial scales and landscape contexts. Using a global metadataset, we quantified the effects of organic farming and plant diversification on abundance, local diversity (communities within fields), and regional diversity (communities across fields) of arthropod pollinators, predators, herbivores, and detritivores. Both organic farming and higher in-field plant diversity enhanced arthropod abundance, particularly for rare taxa. This resulted in increased richness but decreased evenness. While these responses were stronger at local relative to regional scales, richness and abundance increased at both scales, and richness on farms embedded in complex relative to simple landscapes. Overall, both organic farming and in-field plant diversification exerted the strongest effects on pollinators and predators, suggesting these management schemes can facilitate ecosystem service providers without augmenting herbivore (pest) populations. Our results suggest that organic farming and plant diversification promote diverse arthropod metacommunities that may provide temporal and spatial stability of ecosystem service provisioning. Conserving diverse plant and arthropod communities in farming systems therefore requires sustainable practices that operate both within fields and across landscapes.
  [Lichtenberg EM, Kennedy CM, Kremen C, et al. A global synthesis of the effects of diversified farming systems on arthropod diversity within fields and across agricultural landscapes. Glob Change Biol. 2017; 23: 4946–4957. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13714]
• Field evidence of bird poisonings by imidacloprid-treated seeds: a review of incidents reported by the French SAGIR network from 1995 to 2014
  The large-scale use of neonicotinoid insecticides has raised growing concerns about their potential adverse effects on farmland birds, and more generally on biodiversity. Imidacloprid, the first neonicotinoid commercialized, has been identified as posing a risk for seed-eating birds when it is used as seed treatment of some crops since the consumption of a few dressed seeds could cause mortality. But evidence of direct effects in the field is lacking. Here, we reviewed the 103 wildlife mortality incidents reported by the French SAGIR Network from 1995 to 2014, for which toxicological analyses detected imidacloprid residues. One hundred and one incidents totalling at least 734 dead animals were consistent with an agricultural use as seed treatment. Grey partridges (Perdix perdix) and “pigeons” (Columba palumbus, Columba livia and Columba oenas) were the main species found. More than 70% of incidents occurred during autumn cereal sowings. Furthermore, since there is no biomarker for diagnosing neonicotinoid poisonings, we developed a diagnostic approach to estimate the degree of certainty that these mortalities were due to imidacloprid poisoning. By this way, the probability that mortality was due to poisoning by imidacloprid-treated seeds was ranked as at least “likely” in 70% of incidents. As a result, this work provides clear evidence to risk managers that lethal effects due to the consumption by birds of imidacloprid-treated seeds regularly occur in the field. This in turn raises the question of the effectiveness of the two main factors (seed burying and imidacloprid-treated seeds avoidance) that are supposed to make the risk to birds negligible. Risk factors and the relevance of mitigation measures are discussed.
  [Millot, F., Decors, A., Mastain, O. et al. Field evidence of bird poisonings by imidacloprid-treated seeds: a review of incidents reported by the French SAGIR network from 1995 to 2014. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 5469–5485 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-8272-y]
• More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
  Global declines in insects have sparked wide interest among scientists, politicians, and the general public. Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services. Our understanding of the extent and underlying causes of this decline is based on the abundance of single species or taxonomic groups only, rather than changes in insect biomass which is more relevant for ecological functioning. Here, we used a standardized protocol to measure total insect biomass using Malaise traps, deployed over 27 years in 63 nature protection areas in Germany (96 unique location-year combinations) to infer on the status and trend of local entomofauna. Our analysis estimates a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass over the 27 years of study. We show that this decline is apparent regardless of habitat type, while changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics cannot explain this overall decline. This yet unrecognized loss of insect biomass must be taken into account in evaluating declines in abundance of species depending on insects as a food source, and ecosystem functioning in the European landscape.
  [Hallmann, C. A., Sorg, M., Jongejans, E., Siepel, H., Hofland, N., Schwan, H., Stenmans, W., Müller, A., Sumser, H., Hörren, T., Goulson, D., & de Kroon, H. (2017). More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas. PloS one, 12(10), e0185809. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185809]
• Field‐scale examination of neonicotinoid insecticide persistence in soil as a result of seed treatment use in commercial maize (corn) fields in southwestern Ontario
  Neonicotinoid insecticides, especially as seed treatments, have raised concerns about environmental loading and impacts on pollinators, biodiversity, and ecosystems. The authors measured concentrations of neonicotinoid residues in the top 5 cm of soil before planting of maize (corn) in 18 commercial fields with a history of neonicotinoid seed treatment use in southwestern Ontario in 2013 and 2014 using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization. A simple calculator based on first‐order kinetics, incorporating crop rotation, planting date, and seed treatment history from the subject fields, was used to estimate dissipation rate from the seed zone. The estimated half‐life (the time taken for 50% of the insecticide to have dissipated by all mechanisms) based on 8 yr of crop history was 0.64 (range, 0.25–1.59) yr and 0.57 (range, 0.24–2.12) yr for 2013 and 2014, respectively. In fields where neonicotinoid residues were measured in both years, the estimated mean half‐life between 2013 and 2014 was 0.4 (range, 0.27–0.6) yr. If clothianidin and thiamethoxam were used annually as a seed treatment in a typical crop rotation of maize, soybean, and winter wheat over several years, residues would plateau rather than continue to accumulate. Residues of neonicotinoid insecticides after 3 yr to 4 yr of repeated annual use tend to plateau to a mean concentration of less than 6 ng/g in agricultural soils in southwestern Ontario.
  [Arthur Schaafsma, Victor Limay‐Rios, Yingen Xue, Jocelyn Smith, Tracey Baute, Field‐scale examination of neonicotinoid insecticide persistence in soil as a result of seed treatment use in commercial maize (corn) fields in southwestern Ontario, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Volume 35, Issue 2, 1 February 2016, Pages 295–302, https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.3231]
• Impacts of neonicotinoid use on long-term population changes in wild bees in England
  Wild bee declines have been ascribed in part to neonicotinoid insecticides. While short-term laboratory studies on commercially bred species (principally honeybees and bumblebees) have identified sub-lethal effects, there is no strong evidence linking these insecticides to losses of the majority of wild bee species. We relate 18 years of UK national wild bee distribution data for 62 species to amounts of neonicotinoid use in oilseed rape. Using a multi-species dynamic Bayesian occupancy analysis, we find evidence of increased population extinction rates in response to neonicotinoid seed treatment use on oilseed rape. Species foraging on oilseed rape benefit from the cover of this crop, but were on average three times more negatively affected by exposure to neonicotinoids than non-crop foragers. Our results suggest that sub-lethal effects of neonicotinoids could scale up to cause losses of bee biodiversity. Restrictions on neonicotinoid use may reduce population declines.
  [Woodcock, B.A. et al. (2016) Impacts of neonicotinoid use on long-term population changes in wild bees in England, Nature Communications. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12459. ]
• Acute toxicity and risk assessment of permethrin, naled, and dichlorvos to larval butterflies via ingestion of contaminated foliage
  Three Florida native larval butterflies (Junonia coenia, Anartia jatrophae, Eumaeus atala) were used in the present study to determine the acute toxicity, hazard, and risk of a 24h ingestion of leaves contaminated with the adult mosquito control insecticides permethrin, naled, and dichlorvos to late 4th and early 5th in-star caterpillars. Based on 24-h LD50s for ingestion, naled was more acutely toxic than permethrin and dichlorvos to caterpillars. Hazard quotients using the ratio of the highest doses and the 90th percentile doses from field measurements in host plant foliage following actual mosquito control applications to the toxicological benchmarks from laboratory toxicity tests indicate potential high acute hazard for naled compared to permethrin and dichlorvos. Based on probabilistic ecological risk methods, naled exposure doses in the environment also presented a higher acute risk to caterpillars than permethrin and dichlorvos. The acute toxicity laboratory results and ecological risk assessment are based only on dietary ingestion and single chemical doses. It does not include other typical exposure scenarios that may occur in the environment. It is thus plausible to state that the ecological risk assessment presented here underestimates the potential risks in the field to caterpillars. However, one assumption that is scientifically feasible and certainly real from the results - if the environmental exposure doses of mosquito control operations are similar or higher to those presented here in leaves from the field, after applications, there will likely be significant mortalities and other adverse effects on caterpillar populations.
  [Hoang, T. C., & Rand, G. M. (2015). Acute toxicity and risk assessment of permethrin, naled, and dichlorvos to larval butterflies via ingestion of contaminated foliage. Chemosphere, 120, 714–721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.10.040]
• Effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on non-target invertebrates
  We assessed the state of knowledge regarding the effects of large-scale pollution with neonicotinoid insecticides and fipronil on non-target invertebrate species of terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. A large section of the assessment is dedicated to the state of knowledge on sublethal effects on honeybees (Apis mellifera) because this important pollinator is the most studied non-target invertebrate species. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Lumbricidae (earthworms), Apoidae sensu lato (bumblebees, solitary bees) and the section "other invertebrates" review available studies on the other terrestrial species. The sections on freshwater and marine species are rather short as little is known so far about the impact of neonicotinoid insecticides and fipronil on the diverse invertebrate fauna of these widely exposed habitats. For terrestrial and aquatic invertebrate species, the known effects of neonicotinoid pesticides and fipronil are described ranging from organismal toxicology and behavioural effects to population-level effects. For earthworms, freshwater and marine species, the relation of findings to regulatory risk assessment is described. Neonicotinoid insecticides exhibit very high toxicity to a wide range of invertebrates, particularly insects, and field-realistic exposure is likely to result in both lethal and a broad range of important sublethal impacts. There is a major knowledge gap regarding impacts on the grand majority of invertebrates, many of which perform essential roles enabling healthy ecosystem functioning. The data on the few non-target species on which field tests have been performed are limited by major flaws in the outdated test protocols. Despite large knowledge gaps and uncertainties, enough knowledge exists to conclude that existing levels of pollution with neonicotinoids and fipronil resulting from presently authorized uses frequently exceed the lowest observed adverse effect concentrations and are thus likely to have large-scale and wide ranging negative biological and ecological impacts on a wide range of non-target invertebrates in terrestrial, aquatic, marine and benthic habitats.
  [Pisa, L. W., Amaral-Rogers, V., Belzunces, L. P., Bonmatin, J. M., Downs, C. A., Goulson, D., Kreutzweiser, D. P., Krupke, C., Liess, M., McField, M., Morrissey, C. A., Noome, D. A., Settele, J., Simon-Delso, N., Stark, J. D., Van der Sluijs, J. P., Van Dyck, H., & Wiemers, M. (2015). Effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on non-target invertebrates. Environmental science and pollution research international, 22(1), 68–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3471-x]
• Mosquito control insecticides: a probabilistic ecological risk assessment on drift exposures of naled, dichlorvos (naled metabolite) and permethrin to adult butterflies
  A comprehensive probabilistic terrestrial ecological risk assessment (ERA) was conducted to characterize the potential risk of mosquito control insecticide (i.e., naled, it's metabolite dichlorvos, and permethrin) usage to adult butterflies in south Florida by comparing the probability distributions of environmental exposure concentrations following actual mosquito control applications at labeled rates from ten field monitoring studies with the probability distributions of butterfly species response (effects) data from our laboratory acute toxicity studies. The overlap of these distributions was used as a measure of risk to butterflies. The long-term viability (survival) of adult butterflies, following topical (thorax/wings) exposures was the environmental value we wanted to protect. Laboratory acute toxicity studies (24-h LD50) included topical exposures (thorax and wings) to five adult butterfly species and preparation of species sensitivity distributions (SSDs). The ERA indicated that the assessment endpoint of protection, of at least 90% of the species, 90% of the time (or the 10th percentile from the acute SSDs) from acute naled and permethrin exposures, is most likely not occurring when considering topical exposures to adults. Although the surface areas for adulticide exposures are greater for the wings, exposures to the thorax provide the highest potential for risk (i.e., SSD 10th percentile is lowest) for adult butterflies. Dichlorvos appeared to present no risk. The results of this ERA can be applied to other areas of the world, where these insecticides are used and where butterflies may be exposed. Since there are other sources (e.g., agriculture) of pesticides in the environment, where butterfly exposures will occur, the ERA may under-estimate the potential risks under real-world conditions.
  [Hoang, T. C., & Rand, G. M. (2015). Mosquito control insecticides: a probabilistic ecological risk assessment on drift exposures of naled, dichlorvos (naled metabolite) and permethrin to adult butterflies. The Science of the total environment, 502, 252–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.09.027]
• Soil biodiversity and human health
  Soil biodiversity is increasingly recognized as providing benefits to human health because it can suppress disease-causing soil organisms and provide clean air, water and food. Poor land-management practices and environmental change are, however, affecting belowground communities globally, and the resulting declines in soil biodiversity reduce and impair these benefits. Importantly, current research indicates that soil biodiversity can be maintained and partially restored if managed sustainably. Promoting the ecological complexity and robustness of soil biodiversity through improved management practices represents an underutilized resource with the ability to improve human health.
  [Wall, D., Nielsen, U. & Six, J. Soil biodiversity and human health. Nature 528, 69–76 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15744]
• Systemic insecticides (neonicotinoids and fipronil): trends, uses, mode of action and metabolites
  Since their discovery in the late 1980s, neonicotinoid pesticides have become the most widely used class of insecticides worldwide, with large-scale applications ranging from plant protection (crops, vegetables, fruits), veterinary products, and biocides to invertebrate pest control in fish farming. In this review, we address the phenyl-pyrazole fipronil together with neonicotinoids because of similarities in their toxicity, physicochemical profiles, and presence in the environment. Neonicotinoids and fipronil currently account for approximately one third of the world insecticide market; the annual world production of the archetype neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, was estimated to be ca. 20,000 tonnes active substance in 2010. There were several reasons for the initial success of neonicotinoids and fipronil: (1) there was no known pesticide resistance in target pests, mainly because of their recent development, (2) their physicochemical properties included many advantages over previous generations of insecticides (i.e., organophosphates, carbamates, pyrethroids, etc.), and (3) they shared an assumed reduced operator and consumer risk. Due to their systemic nature, they are taken up by the roots or leaves and translocated to all parts of the plant, which, in turn, makes them effectively toxic to herbivorous insects. The toxicity persists for a variable period of time—depending on the plant, its growth stage, and the amount of pesticide applied. A wide variety of applications are available, including the most common prophylactic non-Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) application by seed coating. As a result of their extensive use and physicochemical properties, these substances can be found in all environmental compartments including soil, water, and air. Neonicotinoids and fipronil operate by disrupting neural transmission in the central nervous system of invertebrates. Neonicotinoids mimic the action of neurotransmitters, while fipronil inhibits neuronal receptors. In doing so, they continuously stimulate neurons leading ultimately to death of target invertebrates. Like virtually all insecticides, they can also have lethal and sublethal impacts on non-target organisms, including insect predators and vertebrates. Furthermore, a range of synergistic effects with other stressors have been documented. Here, we review extensively their metabolic pathways, showing how they form both compound-specific and common metabolites which can themselves be toxic. These may result in prolonged toxicity. Considering their wide commercial expansion, mode of action, the systemic properties in plants, persistence and environmental fate, coupled with limited information about the toxicity profiles of these compounds and their metabolites, neonicotinoids and fipronil may entail significant risks to the environment. A global evaluation of the potential collateral effects of their use is therefore timely. The present paper and subsequent chapters in this review of the global literature explore these risks and show a growing body of evidence that persistent, low concentrations of these insecticides pose serious risks of undesirable environmental impacts.
  [Simon-Delso, N., Amaral-Rogers, V., Belzunces, L.P. et al. Systemic insecticides (neonicotinoids and fipronil): trends, uses, mode of action and metabolites. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 5–34 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3470-y]
• Extinctions of aculeate pollinators in Britain and the role of large-scale agricultural changes
  Pollinators are fundamental to maintaining both biodiversity and agricultural productivity, but habitat destruction, loss of flower resources, and increased use of pesticides are causing declines in their abundance and diversity. Using historical records, we assessed the rate of extinction of bee and flower-visiting wasp species in Britain from the mid-19th century to the present. The most rapid phase of extinction appears to be related to changes in agricultural policy and practice beginning in the 1920s, before the agricultural intensification prompted by the Second World War, often cited as the most important driver of biodiversity loss in Britain. Slowing of the extinction rate from the 1960s onward may be due to prior loss of the most sensitive species and/or effective conservation programs.
  [Jeff Ollerton et al. ,Extinctions of aculeate pollinators in Britain and the role of large-scale agricultural changes.Science346,1360-1362(2014).DOI:10.1126/science.1257259]
• Milkweed loss in agricultural fields because of herbicide use: effect on the monarch butterfly population
  1. The size of the Mexican overwintering population of monarch butterflies has decreased over the last decade. Approximately half of these butterflies come from the U.S. Midwest where larvae feed on common milkweed. There has been a large decline in milkweed in agricultural fields in the Midwest over the last decade. This loss is coincident with the increased use of glyphosate herbicide in conjunction with increased planting of genetically modified (GM) glyphosate-tolerant corn (maize) and soybeans (soya).

  2. We investigate whether the decline in the size of the overwintering population can be attributed to a decline in monarch production owing to a loss of milkweeds in agricultural fields in the Midwest. We estimate Midwest annual monarch production using data on the number of monarch eggs per milkweed plant for milkweeds in different habitats, the density of milkweeds in different habitats, and the area occupied by those habitats on the landscape.

  3. We estimate that there has been a 58% decline in milkweeds on the Midwest landscape and an 81% decline in monarch production in the Midwest from 1999 to 2010. Monarch production in the Midwest each year was positively correlated with the size of the subsequent overwintering population in Mexico. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that a loss of agricultural milkweeds is a major contributor to the decline in the monarch population.

  4. The smaller monarch population size that has become the norm will make the species more vulnerable to other conservation threats.
  [Pleasants, J. and Oberhauser, K. (2012) Milkweed loss in agricultural fields because of herbicide use: effect on the monarch butterfly population, Insect Conservation and Diversity. Available at: https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1752-4598.2012.00196.x. ]

• Economic Importance of Bats in Agriculture
  White-nose syndrome (WNS) and the increased development of wind-power facilities are threatening populations of insectivorous bats in North America. Bats are voracious predators of nocturnal insects, including many crop and forest pests. We present here analyses suggesting that loss of bats in North America could lead to agricultural losses estimated at more than $3.7 billion/year. Urgent efforts are needed to educate the public and policy-makers about the ecological and economic importance of insectivorous bats and to provide practical conservation solutions.
  [Boyles, J. et al., Economic Importance of Bats in Agriculture.Science 332,41-42(2011).DOI:10.1126/science.1201366]
• Use of butterflies as nontarget insect test species and the acute toxicity and hazard of mosquito control insecticides
  Honeybees are the standard insect test species used for toxicity testing of pesticides on nontarget insects for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Butterflies are another important insect order and a valued ecological resource in pollination. The current study conducted acute toxicity tests with naled, permethrin, and dichlorvos on fifth larval instar (caterpillars) and adults of different native Florida, USA, butterfly species to determine median lethal doses (24-h LD50), because limited acute toxicity data are available with this major insect group. Thorax- and wing-only applications of each insecticide were conducted. Based on LD50s, thorax and wing application exposures were acutely toxic to both caterpillars and adults. Permethrin was the most acutely toxic insecticide after thorax exposure to fifth instars and adult butterflies. However, no generalization on acute toxicity (sensitivity) of the insecticides could be concluded based on exposures to fifth instars versus adult butterflies or on thorax versus wing exposures of adult butterflies. A comparison of LD50s of the butterflies from this study (caterpillars and adults) with honeybee LD50s for the adult mosquito insecticides on a µg/organism or µg/g basis indicates that several butterfly species are more sensitive to these insecticides than are honeybees. A comparison of species sensitivity distributions for all three insecticides shows that permethrin had the lowest 10th percentile. Using a hazard quotient approach indicates that both permethrin and naled applications in the field may present potential acute hazards to butterflies, whereas no acute hazard of dichlorvos is apparent in butterflies. Butterflies should be considered as potential test organisms when nontarget insect testing of pesticides is suggested under FIFRA.
  [Hoang, T. C., Pryor, R. L., Rand, G. M., & Frakes, R. A. (2011). Use of butterflies as nontarget insect test species and the acute toxicity and hazard of mosquito control insecticides. Environmental toxicology and chemistry, 30(4), 997–1005. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.462]
• Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers
  Pollinators are a key component of global biodiversity, providing vital ecosystem services to crops and wild plants. There is clear evidence of recent declines in both wild and domesticated pollinators, and parallel declines in the plants that rely upon them. Here we describe the nature and extent of reported declines, and review the potential drivers of pollinator loss, including habitat loss and fragmentation, agrochemicals, pathogens, alien species, climate change and the interactions between them. Pollinator declines can result in loss of pollination services which have important negative ecological and economic impacts that could significantly affect the maintenance of wild plant diversity, wider ecosystem stability, crop production, food security and human welfare.
  [Potts, S. G., Biesmeijer, J. C., Kremen, C., Neumann, P., Schweiger, O., & Kunin, W. E. (2010). Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers. Trends in ecology & evolution, 25(6), 345–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2010.01.007]
• The effects of organic agriculture on biodiversity and abundance: A meta-analysis
  The efficiency of agricultural subsidy programmes for preserving biodiversity and improving the environment has been questioned in recent years. Organic farming operates without pesticides, herbicides and inorganic fertilizers, and usually with a more diverse crop rotation. It has been suggested that this system enhances biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. We analysed the effects of organic farming on species richness and abundance using meta‐analysis of literature published before December 2002. Organic farming usually increases species richness, having on average 30% higher species richness than conventional farming systems. However, the results were variable among studies, and 16% of them actually showed a negative effect of organic farming on species richness. We therefore divided the data into different organism groups and according to the spatial scale of the study. Birds, insects and plants usually showed an increased species richness in organic farming systems. However, the number of studies was low in most organism groups (range 2–19) and there was significant heterogeneity between studies. The effect of organic farming was largest in studies performed at the plot scale. In studies at the farm scale, when organic and conventional farms were matched according to landscape structure, the effect was significant but highly heterogeneous. On average, organisms were 50% more abundant in organic farming systems, but the results were highly variable between studies and organism groups. Birds, predatory insects, soil organisms and plants responded positively to organic farming, while non‐predatory insects and pests did not. The positive effects of organic farming on abundance were prominent at the plot and field scales, but not for farms in matched landscapes. Synthesis and applications. Our results show that organic farming often has positive effects on species richness and abundance, but that its effects are likely to differ between organism groups and landscapes. We suggest that positive effects of organic farming on species richness can be expected in intensively managed agricultural landscapes, but not in small‐scale landscapes comprising many other biotopes as well as agricultural fields. Measures to preserve and enhance biodiversity should be more landscape‐ and farm‐specific than is presently the case.
  [Bengtsson, J., Ahnstrom, J. and Weibull, A. (2005) The effects of organic agriculture on biodiversity and abundance: A meta-analysis, Journal of Applied Ecology. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228008559_The_effects_of_organic_agriculture_on_biodiversity_and_abundance_A_meta-analysis. ]
• Conservation of the Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus) in agricultural areas
  The Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus) is a ground-nesting raptor that breeds mainly in cereal crops in western Europe. We evaluate how the use of agricultural habitats may affect population sustainability in this species, based on simulation analyses, and explore how conservation measures could be optimized. Probability of extinction increased with decreasing harrier productivity, and this trend was accentuated when the carrying capacity (maximum number of breeding pairs) decreased. Harrier productivity in agricultural habitats is strongly affected by harvesting activities. An average of 60% of nestlings in agricultural areas of France and the Iberian Peninsula would perish in the absence of conservation measures. These losses would make populations unsustainable, if no immigration occurred. Simulation analyses showed that connectivity between populations through natal dispersal could allow persistence of threatened populations even in the absence of conservation measures. The probability of extinction of four hypothetical populations connected through natal dispersal would be lowest if one of those populations were fully protected (or fully productive), even if the other ones were unprotected. Montagu's harriers are semi-colonial, and populations could be considered as a compound of subpopulations (the colonies). Additionally, Montagu's harriers bred more frequently in areas where food abundance was high, and where the number of fledglings produced in the previous reproductive attempt was high. These factors could be used to develop sustainable and efficient conservation plans, identifying and protecting the most productive and stable colonies in agricultural areas, and further exploring experimentally factors that are likely to attract and maintain harriers in protected areas.
  [Arroyo B, García JT, Bretagnolle V. Conservation of the Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus) in agricultural areas. Animal Conservation. 2002;5(4):283-290. doi:10.1017/S1367943002004031]
• Habitat management to conserve natural enemies of arthropod pests in agriculture
  Many agroecosystems are unfavorable environments for natural enemies due to high levels of disturbance. Habitat management, a form of conservation biological control, is an ecologically based approach aimed at favoring natural enemies and enhancing biological control in agricultural systems. The goal of habitat management is to create a suitable ecological infrastructure within the agricultural landscape to provide resources such as food for adult natural enemies, alternative prey or hosts, and shelter from adverse conditions. These resources must be integrated into the landscape in a way that is spatially and temporally favorable to natural enemies and practical for producers to implement. The rapidly expanding literature on habitat management is reviewed with attention to practices for favoring predators and parasitoids, implementation of habitat management, and the contributions of modeling and ecological theory to this developing area of conservation biological control. The potential to integrate the goals of habitat management for natural enemies and nature conservation is discussed.
  [Landis, D., Wratten, S. and Gurr, G. (2000) Habitat management to conserve natural enemies of arthropod pests in agriculture, Annual Review of Entomology. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10761575/. ]