Overige insecten

We zouden moeten uitgroeien tot een wereldleider in duurzame alternatieven voor schadelijke pesticiden

De Europese Unie is op 1 december 2013 moedig begonnen met een verbod van twee jaar op bepaalde toepassingen van drie neonicotinoide pesticiden die schadelijk voor honingbijen en andere bestuivers zijn. Het Europese verbod gaat over neuroactieve insecticiden die in hun werking vergelijkbaar zijn met nicotine. De bekende gevolgen voor bijen variëren van negatieve beinvloeding van foerageergedrag en navigatie (die hun vermogen om gewassen te bestuiven vermindert) tot de dood. Bestuivers zijn essentieel voor onze voedselvoorziening en landbouweconomie. Ze zorgen voor meer dan een derde van het voedsel dat we eten, verbeteren de productie van 75 procent van alle soorten gewassen, en zijn essentieel voor talrijke gewassen, zoals amandelen, avocado's, appels en kersen. Maar we moeten veel meer doen, en uitgroeien tot een wereldleider in duurzame alternatieven voor schadelijke pesticiden.

Three leading Australian environmental scientists have called for a substantial change to the way the world responds to wildlife that is going extinct

In a paper provocatively entitled “Counting the books while the library burns”, the researchers produce evidence that many wildlife programs round the world are monitoring species to the point of extinction – often without taking the necessary action to save them. Professor David Lindenmayer and Dr Maxine Piggott of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) and the Australian National University, and Assoc. Professor Brendan Wintle of CEED and the University of Melbourne warn in the journal Frontiers of Ecology that some conservation programs are standing by and watching species die out. Their work, funded through Australia’s National Environmental Research program (NERP), highlights the growing challenge of saving almost 20,000 endangered animals, birds and reptiles from extinction – and proposes a new action plan. “Of the 63,837 species assessed worldwide using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria, 865 are extinct or extinct in the wild and 19,817 are listed as critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable to extinction,” the researchers say. “Since the start of the 21st century alone, at least 10 species of vertebrates are known to have gone extinct, although this is likely to be a substantial underestimate.”

The year the Monarch didn’t appear - The latest bad news about the dramatic decline of insect populations

On the first of November, when Mexicans celebrate a holiday called the Day of the Dead, some also celebrate the millions of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) that, without fail, fly to the mountainous fir forests of central Mexico on that day. They are believed to be souls of the dead, returned. This year, for or the first time in memory, the monarch butterflies didn’t come, at least not on the Day of the Dead. They began to straggle in a week later than usual, in record-low numbers. Last year’s low of 60 million now seems great compared with the fewer than three million that have shown up so far this year. Some experts fear that the spectacular migration could be near collapse. “It does not look good,” said Lincoln P. Brower, a monarch expert at Sweet Briar College. It is only the latest bad news about the dramatic decline of insect populations. Another insect in serious trouble is the wild bee, which has thousands of species. Nicotine-based pesticides called neonicotinoids are implicated in their decline, but even if they were no longer used, experts say, bees, monarchs and many other species of insect would still be in serious trouble.

Farmers should aim to never use insecticides, says soil scientist Jill Clapperton, of Rhizoterra Inc., Montana, US

Speaking at the Vic No-Till annual conference in Ballarat last week, Dr Clapperton said: "It's bad for you, it's bad for the environment, it's bad for the soil - it's bad for everything. "But some times we need it, I get that. Our goal should be not to need it. "Insecticides are some of our most toxic substances - they kill all insects, beneficial and pests - and insects are probably more manageable than many of our other pests. "Now with our technology we can put things between rows properly and grow mixed covers, we have some opportunities to look at this more. We are starting to understand the different insects and how they interact." Dr Clapperton is a freelance scientist and farmer, proving her science in her own fields.

Rusty blackbirds appear to be in free-fall - The available data show a 90% decline since the 1960s

Rusty blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) nest in the far, far north, all the way to the tree line. They build large nests in trees alongside beaver ponds, muskeg swamps, and other watery habitats. In the winter, the birds flock in bottomland wetland forests in the southeast, sometimes mingling with larger flocks of grackles and red-winged blackbirds, but sometimes keeping to themselves. Unfortunately, this species appears to be in free-fall. The available data show a 90% decline since the 1960s. The cause of these plummeting numbers is not fully understood. Changes in the availability of forests on either the summer or winter grounds could be part of the explanation. Northern forests are being increasingly logged and disturbed, and climate change is drying them out and causing more frequent fire. Acid rain and mercury are also significant problems in the north. Here in the south, hardwood forests are cleared for agriculture, housing, and pine plantations. But neither of these habitat trends seems severe enough to account for the decline. Some as yet unknown form of contamination or disease might be involved. Or the decline might be rooted in the supply of the rusty blackbirds’ favorite foods, grasshoppers and other insects.

Er werd ons een groene en duurzame hervorming van het gemeenschappelijk landbouwbeleid beloofd en dit is wat we kregen

In ruil voor de miljarden euro's aan jaarlijks betaalde belastingen werd de Europeanen een groene en duurzame hervorming van het gemeenschappelijk landbouwbeleid (GLB) beloofd. Maar nu de besluiten zijn genomen is het zeer onwaarschijnlijk dat een groenere en duurzame landbouw vorm aan zal nemen. Vrijstelling van groene maatregelen is eerder regel dan uitzondering geworden. Erger nog, in sommige landen is deze zogenaamde "groene" hervorming eerder een stap achteruit door onevenredige bezuinigingen op het groene Fonds voor plattelandsontwikkeling en een reductie van de milieu-eisen.

The impending disaster - Fish in River Kennet change their diet following chlorpyrifos pollution incident

The full ramifications of the changes will not be known for some time, the annual general meeting of the Action for the River Kennet (ARK) conservation group heard. The meeting took place in the Hungerford Corn Exchange on Thursday, November 7. More than 60 ARK members heard that the pollution incident continued to cause major environmental changes. The pollution was first discovered on July 1 by ARK volunteer riverfly monitors. Subsequent investigations by the Environment Agency (EA) revealed the culprit was a lethal insecticide identified as chlorpyrifos. As little as a few teaspoonsful are thought to have entered the watercourse from a water treatment works in Marlborough, Wiltshire, leading to a 15km stretch of water down to Hungerford being affected. The River Kennet is of England’s finest chalkstreams. The incident is one of the largest ever and wiped out insect life – a major source of food for fish and other wildlife – in around a third of the river. The meeting heard that brown trout and other fish in the river appear ill-equipped for winter following the disastrous chemical spill. ARK director Charlotte Hitchmough said the entire base of the food chain has been removed, causing fish to alter their diets. She added: “They are partly eating more terrestrial invertebrates, smaller fish and even small crayfish". Delegates heard that, while large fish appear to coping at the moment, smaller fish stocks have been greatly reduced. This, in turn, could have a knock-on effect as there are fewer small fish for the large fish to eat.

Ctgb wijst verzoek tot intrekking toelating 5 neonicotinoiden deels af

In oktober 2012 vroeg de organisatie PAN Europe het College voor de toelating van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en biociden (Ctgb) om de toelating van 6 gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en 1 biocide in te trekken in verband met de risico’s voor waterorganismen en geconstateerde overschrijdingen in het oppervlaktewater. Lopende de behandeling van dit verzoek verscheen een nieuw rapport van Alterra. Het Ctgb heeft deze nieuwe gegevens niet alleen betrokken bij de behandeling van het verzoek van PAN Europe, maar ook is onderzocht of deze studie geen gevolgen zou moeten hebben voor andere toelatingen op basis van imidacloprid. Dit heeft geleid tot een zienswijzeprocedure naar aanleiding van het voornemen van het Ctgb om in te grijpen in een drietal toelatingen.

The steep decline of insectivores in Ontario is telling us they're running out of insect food

Birds that eat flying insects are in a shocking and mysterious decline, says the co-editor of the new Atlas of Breeding Birds in Ontario. “It is an alarm bell,” Gregor Beck, a wildlife biologist and the book’s co-editor, said. The atlas, created after five years of research and employing 1.2 million individual bird records from Pelee Island to Hudson Bay, found most of the birds that eat flying insects declined 30 to 50 per cent in the last 20 years. The birds include some swallows, the common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), the whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus vociferus) and the chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica). The decline was the biggest shock that came from the research, Beck said. We need to be very concerned, he said. Other insectivores are in steep decline as well. Reptile populations have declined drastically in Ontario over the past century. The Ontario Endangered Species Act, 2007 considers 18 of the province’s 24 reptile species (75%!) to be at risk. Fewer amphibian species are considered to be at risk, although amphibian populations are declining in parts of the province. Three species – timber rattlesnake, spring salamander and tiger salamander – have been extirpated.

Unbemerkt - Schleichender Verlust an Biodiversität

Der Verlust an Biodiversität geht schleichend und für viele unmerklich vor sich. Neben den Schmetterlingen u.a. Insekten sind auch die Wirbeltiere vom intensiven Obstbau geschädigt, was am Beispiel der Vogelwelt gut belegbar ist. Es sind zwei Gründe, die zur Ausrottung bestimmter Vogelarten in der Talsohle des intensiven Obstbaus geführt haben. Zum einen ist es der Lebensraumverlust und zum anderen der Spritzmitteleinsatz. Als Beispiele seien zwei früher häufige Arten genannt, die Feldlerche (Alauda arvensis) und der Neuntöter (Lanius collurio). Beide Arten stehen auf der Roten Liste der bedrohten Vogelarten und es sind vor allem die Lebensraumveränderungen, die zu ihrem starken Rückgang (europaweit!) geführt haben. Für beide Arten bietet der Obervinschgau zurzeit noch gute Brutgebiete. In der Heckenlandschaft Hoache/Mals (ca. 100 ha) wurde am 19. Juni 2013 die erstaunliche Zahl von 27 Neuntötern (15 Männchen, 9 Weibchen und einige Jungvögel) gezählt, wobei mehrere Brutpaare beobachtet werden konnten. Dieses Brutgebiet ist bei einer weiteren ungehinderten Ausbreitung des intensiven Obstanbaus ohne ökologische Ausgleichsmaßnahmen in höchstem Maß gefährdet. Dabei ist der Neuntöter nur ein Indikator für viele weitere Tierarten des Gebietes. Die Malser Haide hingegen stellt eines der letzten bedeutenden Brutgebiete für die Feldlerche dar. Auch diese Vogelart kann sich nicht an den Obstbau anpassen. Weitere stark bedrohte Arten sind Schwarzkehlchen (Saxicola rubicola), Wiedehopf (Upupa epops), Wendehals (Jynx torquilla), Goldammer (Emberiza citrinella), Braunkehlchen (Saxicola rubetra), Wachtel (Coturnix coturnix) und Wachtelkönig (Crex crex).