Neonicotinoids is a type of pesticides used against insect attack. Researchers from Lund University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, in collaboration with the Agriculture Department, investigated how the neonicotinoid clothianidin affecting domestic and wild bees in Sweden. The research results have now been published in the scientific journal Nature, and show that the plant protection product affect wild bees negative. It is serious because wild bees are important for pollination of crops. Wild bees are in Sweden bumblebees and solitärbin.
– We saw a clear negative impact on the hop communities growth and the ability to reprint treated rapeseed fields, says May Rundlöf, Lund University, coordinator and scientifically responsible for the field study.
In addition to problems with growth and reproduction, so there were even fewer wild bees in the treated rapeseed fields. Researchers found, however, no negative impact on the honeybee social growth.
The study highlights the need for new ways to evaluate the risks associated with pesticides approved.
– If we only investigate how a new plant protection products affect honey bees are not enough to predict the consequences for wild bees in real landscapes, says May Rundlöf.
Neonicotinoids are used for seed dressing for rape cultivation , to protect the young plants against soil fleas. The EU has since 2013 restricted the use of the plant protection product in crops that are attractive to bees.
– I think the results show that it is inappropriate to use clothianidin in rapeseed cultivation, says Thorsten Rahbek Pedersen, Project Manager on Agriculture. We need alternative medicine and new cultivation techniques in order to continue cultivating spring rape in Sweden.
– We are now testing new methods for managing soil fleas, says Riccardo Bommarco at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
The project was conducted in collaboration with the Swedish Seed and Oil Crop and biodlarorganisationerna and funded by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, Carl Trygger Foundation for Scientific Research, the Royal Physiographic Society, the Swedish Research Council Formas.
Publications and additional materials:
Link to article in Nature: http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature14420
Link to footage of the study: Swedish: https://youtu.be/GtrydjKgPCw
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