https://www.boerenlandvogels.nl/sites/default/files/Morrissey%20et%20al_2015_Neonicotinoid%20contamination%20of%20global%20surface%20water%20%20%20.pdf

Neonicotinoid contamination of global surface waters and associated risk to aquatic invertebrates: A review

There is increasing concern that multiple drivers of ecological change will interact synergistically to accelerate biodiversity loss. However, the prevalence and magnitude of these interactions remain one of the largest uncertainties in projections of future ecological change. We address this uncertainty by performing a meta-analysis of 112 published factorial experiments that evaluated the impacts of multiple stressors on animal mortality in freshwater, marine and terrestrial communities. We found that, on average, mortalities from the combined action of two stressors were not synergistic and this result was consistent across studies investigating different stressors, study organisms and life-history stages. Furthermore, only one-third of relevant experiments displayed truly synergistic effects, which does not support the prevailing ecological paradigm that synergies are rampant. However, in more than three-quarters of relevant experiments, the outcome of multiple stressor interactions was non-additive (i.e. synergies or antagonisms), suggesting that ecological surprises may be more common than simple additive effects.

Quantifying the evidence for ecological synergies

Molecular analysis of predation, through polymerase chain reaction amplification of prey remains within the faeces or digestive systems of predators, is a rapidly growing field, impeded by a lack of readily accessible advice on best practice. Here, we review the techniques used to date and provide guidelines accessible to those new to this field or from a different molecular biology background. Optimization begins with field collection, sample preservation, predator dissection and DNA extraction techniques, all designed to ensure good quality, uncontaminated DNA from semidigested samples. The advantages of nuclear vs. mitochondrial DNA as primer targets are reviewed, along with choice of genes and advice on primer design to maximize specificity and detection periods following ingestion of the prey by the predators. Primer and assay optimization are discussed, including cross-amplification tests and calibratory feeding experiments. Once primers have been made, the screening of field samples must guard against (through appropriate controls) cross contamination. Multiplex polymerase chain reactions provide a means of screening for many different species simultaneously. We discuss visualization of amplicons on gels, with and without incorporation of fluorescent primers. In more specialized areas, we examine the utility of temperature and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis to examine responses of predators to prey diversity, and review the potential of quantitative polymerase chain reaction systems to quantify predation. Alternative routes by which prey DNA might get into the guts of a predator (scavenging, secondary predation) are highlighted. We look ahead to new technologies, including microarrays and pyrosequencing, which might one day be applied to this field.

Molecular analysis of predation: a review of best practice for DNA-based approaches.

The ecosystem engineering concept focuses on how organisms physically change the abiotic environment and how this feeds back to the biota. While the concept was formally introduced a little more than 10 years ago, the underpinning of the concept can be traced back to more than a century to the early work of Darwin. The formal application of the idea is yielding new insights into the role of species in ecosystems and many other areas of basic and applied ecology. Here we focus on how temporal, spatial and organizational scales usefully inform the roles played by ecosystem engineers and their incorporation into broader ecological contexts. Two particular, distinguishing features of ecosystem engineers are that they affect the physical space in which other species live and their direct effects can last longer than the lifetime of the organism – engineering can in essence outlive the engineer. Together, these factors identify critical considerations that need to be included in models, experimental and observational work. The ecosystem engineering concept holds particular promise in the area of ecological applications, where influence over abiotic variables and their consequent effects on biotic communities may facilitate ecological restoration and counterbalance anthropogenic influences.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00997.x

Ecosystem engineering in space and time.

Claims about the role of predator diversity in maintaining ecosystem function and providing ecosystem services such as pest control are controversial, but evaluative tests are beginning to accumulate. Empirical and experimental comparisons of species-rich versus species-poor assemblages of entomophagous arthropods and vertebrates range from strong suppression to facilitative release of herbivorous arthropod prey. Top-down control can be strengthened when natural enemies complement each other, dampened by negative interactions, balanced by both factors, and driven by single influential species. A meta-analytic synthesis shows a significant overall effect of enemy richness increasing top-down control of herbivores, which is consistent in agricultural studies conducted in tropical versus temperate zones, in studies using caged versus open-field designs, but not so in nonagricultural habitats. Synthetic analyses address theory and help set precautionary policy for conserving ecological services broadly, while characterizing uncertainty associated with herbivore response to changes in enemy diversity.

Effects of Natural Enemy Biodiversity on the Suppression of Arthropod Herbivores in Terrestrial Ecosystems

Experiments linking neonicotinoids and declining bee health have been criticized for not simulating realistic exposure. Here we quantified the duration and magnitude of neonicotinoid exposure in Canada’s corn-growing regions and used these data to design realistic experiments to investigate the effect of such insecticides on honey bees. Colonies near corn were naturally exposed to neonicotinoids for up to 4 months—the majority of the honey bee’s active season. Realistic experiments showed that neonicotinoids increased worker mortality and were associated with declines in social immunity and increased queenlessness over time. We also discovered that the acute toxicity of neonicotinoids to honey bees doubles in the presence of a commonly encountered fungicide. Our work demonstrates that field-realistic exposure to neonicotinoids can reduce honey bee health in corn-growing regions.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/356/6345/1395.full.pdf

Chronic exposure to neonicotinoids reduces honey bee health near corn crops

Part I: Introduction 1. Advanced Capitalism: Its Promise and Failings (Martin Parker, George Cheney, Valerie Fournier and Chris Land) 2. Alternatives: Past, Present and Prospective (Martin Parker, George Cheney, Valerie Fournier and George Land) 3. Imagining Alternatives (Martin Parker, George Cheney, Valerie Fournier, Chris Land and Geoff Lightfoot) Part II: Work and Labour 4. Between Class and the Market: Self-Management in theory and in the Practice of Worker-Recuperated Enterprises in Argentina (Maurizio Atzeni and Marcelo Vieta) 5. Worker-Owned-and-Governed Cooperatives and the Wider Cooperative Movement: Challenges and Opportunities within and beyond the Global Economic Crisis (Tom Webb and George Cheney) 6. Communes and Intentional Communities (Donald E. Pitzer with Donald E. Janzen, Docey Lewis, and Rachel Wright-Summerton) 7. Non-Commodified Labour (Colin C Williams) 8. Family and Household Reproduction (Karen Dale) 9. Immigrants and Immigration (Josiah Heyman, Nicholas Fischer, and James Loucky) 10. Toward a Politics of Anonymity: Algorithmic Actors in the Constitution of Collective Agency and the Implications for Global Economic Justice Movements (Ned Rossiter and Soenke Zehle) Part III: Exchange and Consumption 11. Fair Trade: Social Justice and Production Alternatives (Laura T. Raynolds and Jennifer Keahey) 12. Complementary Currencies as Slternative Organisational Forms (Peter North) 13. Gifts, Gifting and Gift Economies - On Challenging Capitalism with Blood, Plunder and Necklaces (Alf Rehn) 14. Voluntary Simplicity (Seonaidh McDonald) 15. The Bioregional Economy: Reclaiming our Local Land (Molly Scott Cato) 16. Organizing Transition: Principles and Tensions in Eco-Localism (Shiv Ganesh and Heather Zoller) Part IV: Resources 17. Credit Unions (Leanne Cutcher and Peter Mason) 18. Alternative and Social Accounting (Kelum Jayasinghe and Dennis Thomas) 19. The Commons (Massimo De Angelis and David Harvie) 20. Scrounging and Reclaiming (Jeff Ferrell) 21. Free and Open-Source Appropriate Technology (Joshua M. Pearce) 22. Education: By the People for the People (The Trapese Collective) 23. Social Movements and Global Governance (Marianne Maeckelbergh) 24. Horizons of Possibility: Challenge, Co-Optation and Transformation (Martin Parker, George Cheney, Valerie Fournier and Chris Land)

The Routledge Companion to Alternative Organization

In recent years, populations of honey bees and other pollinators have been reported to be in decline worldwide. A number of stressors have been identified as potential contributing factors, including the extensive prophylactic use of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are highly toxic to bees, in agriculture. While multiple routes of exposure to these systemic insecticides have been documented for honey bees, contamination from puddle water has not been investigated. In this study, we used a multi-residue method based on LC-MS/MS to analyze samples of puddle water taken in the field during the planting of treated corn and one month later. If honey bees were to collect and drink water from these puddles, our results showed that they would be exposed to various agricultural pesticides. All water samples collected from corn fields were contaminated with at least one neonicotinoid compound, although most contained more than one systemic insecticide. Concentrations of neonicotinoids were higher in early spring, indicating that emission and drifting of contaminated dust during sowing raises contamination levels of puddles. Although the overall average acute risk of drinking water from puddles was relatively low, concentrations of neonicotinoids ranged from 0.01 to 63 µg/L and were sufficient to potentially elicit a wide array of sublethal effects in individuals and colony alike. Our results also suggest that risk assessment of honey bee water resources underestimates the foragers' exposure and consequently miscalculates the risk. In fact, our data shows that honey bees and native pollinators are facing unprecedented cumulative exposure to these insecticides from combined residues in pollen, nectar and water. These findings not only document the impact of this route of exposure for honey bees, they also have implications for the cultivation of a wide variety of crops for which the extensive use of neonicotinoids is currently promoted.

/pdf/neonicotinoid-contaminated-puddles-of-water-represent-a-risk-2aqye1y8n1.pdf

Neonicotinoid-Contaminated Puddles of Water Represent a Risk of Intoxication for Honey Bees

Urbanization is one of the major anthropogenic processes contributing to local habitat loss and extirpation of numerous species, including wild bees, the most widespread pollinators. Little is known about the mechanisms through which urbanization impacts wild bee communities, or the types of urban green spaces that best promote their conservation in cities. The main objective of this study was to describe and compare wild bee community diversity, structure, and dynamics in two Canadian cities, Montreal and Quebec City. A second objective was to compare functional trait diversity among three habitat types (cemeteries, community gardens and urban parks) within each city. Bees were collected using pan traps and netting on the same 46 sites, multiple times, over the active season in 2012 and 2013. A total of 32,237 specimens were identified, representing 200 species and 6 families, including two new continental records, Hylaeus communis Nylander (1852) and Anthidium florentinum (Fabricius, 1775). Despite high community evenness, we found significant abundance of diverse species, including exotic ones. Spatio-temporal analysis showed higher stability in the most urbanized city (Montreal) but low nestedness of species assemblages among the three urban habitats in both cities. Our study demonstrates that cities are home to diverse communities of wild bees, but in turn affect bee community structure and dynamics. We also found that community gardens harbour high levels of functional trait diversity. Urban agriculture therefore contributes substantially to the provision of functionally diverse bee communities and possibly to urban pollination services.

Taxonomic and functional trait diversity of wild bees in different urban settings

A growing number of ecologists are using molecular gut content assays to qualitatively measure predation. The two most popular gut content assays are immunoassays employing pest-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays employing pest-specific DNA. Here, we present results from the first study to simultaneously use both methods to identify predators of the glassy winged sharpshooter (GWSS), Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). A total of 1,229 arthropod predators, representing 30 taxa, were collected from urban landscapes in central California and assayed first by means of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a GWSS egg-specific mAb and then by PCR using a GWSS-specific DNA marker that amplifies a 197-base pair fragment of its cytochrome oxidase gene (subunit I). The gut content analyses revealed that GWSS remains were present in 15.5% of the predators examined, with 18% of the spiders and 11% of the insect predators testing positive. Common spider predators included members of the Salticidae, Clubionidae, Anyphaenidae, Miturgidae, and Corinnidae families. Common insect predators included lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), praying mantis (Mantodea: Mantidae), ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), assassin bugs (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), and damsel bugs (Hemiptera: Nabidae). Comparison of the two assays indicated that they were not equally effective at detecting GWSS remains in predator guts. The advantages of combining the attributes of both types of assays to more precisely assess field predation and the pros and cons of each assay for mass-screening predators are discussed.

Identifying the predator complex of Homalodisca vitripennis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae): a comparative study of the efficacy of an ELISA and PCR gut content assay

Valérie Fournier

Papers

Chronic exposure to neonicotinoids reduces honey bee health near corn crops

The Routledge Companion to Alternative Organization

Neonicotinoid-Contaminated Puddles of Water Represent a Risk of Intoxication for Honey Bees

Taxonomic and functional trait diversity of wild bees in different urban settings

Identifying the predator complex of Homalodisca vitripennis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae): a comparative study of the efficacy of an ELISA and PCR gut content assay