General

The drivers of worldwide insect decline

Pesticide use is driving an “alarming” decline in the world’s insects that could have a “catastrophic” impact on nature’s ecosystems, researchers have warned. More than 40 per cent of insect species are at risk of extinction with decades, with climate change and pollution also to blame, according to a global scientific review. Their numbers are plummeting so precipitously that almost all insects could vanish within a century, the study found.

Low levels of neonicotinoids are present in commonly-consumed fruits and vegetables sold in the US

Residue data for seven neonicotinoid pesticides collected between 1999 and 2015 by the US Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP) were collated and summarized by year across various food commodities, including fruit, vegetable, meat, dairy, grain, honey, and baby food, as well as water to qualitatively describe and examine trends in contamination frequency and residue concentrations. The highest detection frequencies (DFs) for neonicotinoids by year on all commodities were generally below 20%.

Canada has been losing species for a long time

Since European settlement, over 100 species have been lost here. These include plants and animals that are extinct and extirpated, and species that are considered historic (no one has seen them in Canada for a long time). The number of lost species varies between different regions of the country. In the Great Lakes region of southern Ontario, there are extinct species (passenger pigeon), extirpated species (paddlefish) and historic species (Eskimo curlew). There are also species that have vanished from this landscape but still exist elsewhere in Canada.

Without Birds, Lizards, and Other Vertebrate Pollinators, Plant Reproduction Could Decline by Two-Thirds

Bees tend to get the most attention as pollinators critical to the survival of plant species. But lizards, mice, bats, and other vertebrates also act as important pollinators. A new study finds that fruit and seed production drops an average 63 percent when vertebrates, but not insects, are kept away from plants.

Bollenteelt in Drenthe neemt fors toe tot 1.900 hectare

Het areaal bloembollen was in 2017 vergeleken met 2000 met 18 procent gegroeid naar meer dan 26.000 hectare. Sinds 2000 is de bollenteelt in Drenthe ook flink gegroeid. Het areaal verviervoudigde bijna tot 1.900 hectare. Hiermee komt Drenthe, na Noord-Holland, Flevoland en Zuid-Holland, op de vierde plaats van provincies met het grootste areaal bloembollen. De plaats in Drenthe waar de meeste bollenteelt plaatsvindt is Midden-Drenthe met ruim 1.200 hectare. Westerveld staat met 323 hectare op de tweede plaats. Noord-Holland nam in 2017 het leeuwendeel van de bollenteelt voor haar rekening.

Die Zahl der weltweit bedrohten Tier- und Pflanzenarten hat dieses Jahr einen neuen Rekordstand erreicht

Mit rund 25'800 bedrohten Tier- und Pflanzenarten sei im zu Ende gehenden Jahr ein neuer dramatischer Höchststand erreicht worden. Ein Jahr zuvor waren es noch 24'000 bedrohte Arten. "Wir Menschen verursachen das grösste Artensterben seit Ende der Dinosaurier", resümierte Eberhard Brandes, Vorstand des WWF Deutschland. Auch in der Schweiz gingen die Bestände einiger Arten merklich zurück. Mehr als 40 Prozent der Insektenarten in der Schweiz gälten als bedroht, darunter Bienen und Schmetterlinge, sagte WWF-Sprecherin Perrette Rey in Lausanne auf Anfrage.

Hong Kong’s most endangered species

The black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) has the most restricted distribution of all spoonbills, and it is the only one regarded as endangered. There remain only about 3,300 spoonbills, and the species spends the mating season on small islands along the west coast of the Korean Peninsula and in China’s Liaoning province, the WWF says. “With such a small global population, the black-faced spoonbill is inherently vulnerable to extinction,” it says.