Beleid en debat

In a desperate bid to save a nearly extinct species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it is launching a captive breeding program for Florida's grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus). If they do nothing, experts predict the sparrow will go extinct in three to five years, just like its cousin, the dusky seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus nigrescens). The dusky disappeared from the Earth in 1987 when the last survivor died at Disney World. If the Florida grasshopper sparrow vanishes, it would be the first bird species to go extinct in the United States since then, according to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology."Captive breeding is labor intensive and challenging. It is generally done as a last resort and there are no guarantees. But we have to try," said Larry Williams, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Vero Beach. "This is an emergency and the situation for this species is dire. This is literally a race against time." Biologists estimate that fewer than 200 of the tiny birds remain. State and federal biologists plan to spend the next three months hunting for sparrow eggs, hoping to collect up to 20 to take to the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation in Loxahatchee. The eggs would be placed in incubators until they hatch.

Nature magazine brings a chilling article on the horrendous effects of agricultural chemicals in pesticides on invertebrates and the soil. The key words: even at 'safe' levels. The results were drawn from several studies in different continents and reveal that in polluted areas, up to forty-two per cent of species were lost as a result of harmful chemicals. "Pesticides spark broad biodiversity loss", written by Sharon Oosthoek, tells a sorry tale of the effects of pesticides on biodiversity. The conclusion is that the use of pesticides has caused a sharp decline in the biodiversity of invertebrates living in streams. Studies carried out in Germany and France in Europe and in Australia showed a dramatic decline in species such as mayflies and dragonflies. Quoting he study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sharon Oosthoek went on to state some shocking details: the studies were carried out in 23 streams in Germany, 16 in France and 24 in Australia, classifying them in three categories: uncontaminated, slightly contaminated and highly contaminated. In the last category, there were up to 42% fewer species than those found in the uncontaminated group of streams in Europe, while the figure in Australia was a decrease of 27%. More seriously still, the article goes on to claim, the decrease in biodiversity occurred even at levels which scientists state to be "environmentally protective".

Honey bees are exposed to a wealth of synergistically interacting stress factors, which may induce colony losses often associated with high infection levels of pathogens. Neonicotinoid insecticides have been reported to enhance the impact of pathogens, but the underlying immune alteration is still obscure. In this study we describe the molecular mechanism through which clothianidin adversely affects the insect immune response and promotes replication of a viral pathogen in honey bees bearing covert infections. Our results shed light on a further level of regulation of the immune response in insects and have implications for bee conservation.

A huge increase in the incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases has been reported in the United States (US) over the last 20 years. Similar increases have been seen globally. In the present study, US government databases were searched for GE crop data, glyphosate application data and disease epidemiological data. Correlation analyses were then performed on a total of 22 diseases in these time-series data sets. The Pearson correlation coefficients are highly significant (< 10-5) between glyphosate applications and hypertension (R = 0.923), stroke (R = 0.925), diabetes prevalence (R = 0.971), diabetes incidence (R = 0.935), obesity (R = 0.962), lipoprotein metabolism disorder (R = 0.973), Alzheimer’s (R = 0.917), senile dementia (R = 0.994), Parkinson's (R = 0.875), multiple sclerosis (R = 0.828), autism (R = 0.989), inflammatory bowel disease (R = 0.938), intestinal infections (R = 0.974), end stage renal disease (R = 0.975), acute kidney failure (R = 0.978), cancers of the thyroid (R = 0.988), liver (R = 0.960), bladder (R = 0.981), pancreas (R = 0.918), kidney (R = 0.973) and myeloid leukaemia (R = 0.878).

Bayer CropScience will introduce soon a new class of chemistry that will be an alternative to imidacloprid, the company’s embattled systemic insecticide that has been implicated in honey bee deaths. The new active ingredient is flupyradifurone. It is a systemic from the butenolide chemical class and is active on sucking insect pests. it will be registered in 2015 and marketed by Bayer under the trade name Sivanto™ as a “bee friendly” product with no bloom (application) restrictions.

A study published in the journal Science, reveals that the number of slugs, spiders, worms and other invertebrates has fallen by 45 per cent over the past 35 years. Experts fear this will harm the planet as creepy crawlies play an important role in pollinating crops, pest control, decomposition and ensuring soil remains packed with nutrients, as well as water filtration. In the UK the number of beetles, butterflies, bees and wasps has fallen by up to 60 per cent. Experts warn that fewer insects would have a huge effect on crop production as up to 75 percent are pollinated by insects, amounting to around 10 per cent of the world's food supply. Scientists fear a drop in the insect population could also spark a decline in birds, which prey on pests that damage crops, and amphibians, which help keep water supplies free from algae.

Unsere Feldvögel gehören heute zu den am stärksten im Bestand zurückgehenden Vogelarten. Ihre Situation ist ein ernstes Warnsignal, da die vergleichsweise gut erforschten Vögel deutlich sichtbare Zeiger der Artenvielfalt in der Kulturlandschaft sind. Neben den Feldvögeln sind also auch andere zahlreiche Tier- und Pflanzenarten der Feldflur von starken Bestands- und Arealeinbußen betroffen, so dass man von einem generellen Rückgang der biologischen Vielfalt in der Agrarlandschaft sprechen muss. Mit dem gerade erschienenen Schwerpunktheft des Charadrius hat die NWO (Nordrhein-Westfälische Ornithologengesellschaft e.V.) deutliche Belege für den katastrophalen Rückgang des Kiebitzes und der Grauammer geliefert. Ohne sofort wirksame Schutzmaßnahmen werden beide Arten in absehbarer Zeit aus NRW verschwunden sein. Die von der NWO vorgestellte Gefährdungsanalyse samt notwendiger Schutzmaßnahmen zeigt den dramatischen Rückgang der Feldvögel in unserem Bundesland, erläutert Ursachen und zeigt dringend notwendigen Handlungsbedarf auf und will den Informations- und Diskussionsprozess um den Artenschutz in den landwirtschaftlichen Fluren verstärken. Die Arbeit zur Situation der Feldvögel in Nordrhein-Westfalen ist im Charadrius erschienen. Außerdem hat die AG Feldvögel ein ausführliches Hintergrundpapier mit vertiefenden Informationen und Quellenangaben verfasst.