'Alarm Bells Are On': New Study Links Neonics to Bird Declines
Published on Thursday, July 10, 2014 by Common Dreams
'Alarm Bells Are On': New Study Links Neonics to Bird Declines
New study finds scope of ecological damage caused by widely used insecticides worse than thought
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer
A class of insecticides linked to the decline of bees may be even more ecologically damaging than previously thought, possibly causing declines in birds as well.
The new findings by researchers from the Netherlands was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The researchers looked at one neonicotinoid or "neonic" called imidacloprid, and fond that where the concentrations of that insecticide were more than 20 nanograms per liter, bird populations dropped by 3.5 per cent on average annually.
"In ten years it's a 35% reduction in the local population, it's really huge," study co-author Hans de Kroon from Radboud University told BBC News. "It means the alarm bells are on straight away."
The scientists suspect that the imidacloprid builds up and can persist for years in the soil, killing insects that the birds depend on for food, therefore leading to their decline.
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