[Pollinator] Fwd: USGS News: Native Bees Foraging in Fields Are Exposed to Neonicotinoid Insecticides and other Pesticides (Including Imagery)

Wed Nov 4 12:28:10 PST 2015

Hi there: I thought you all might want to post this release. Catherine
(USGS)
-------------------------------------------------------
 🐝Catherine Puckett
Deputy Public Affairs Officer
USGS Office of Communications
352-377-2469 (O)  352-278-0165 (cell)
cpuckett at usgs.gov

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Demas, Alex <apdemas at usgs.gov>
Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 12:09 PM
Subject: USGS News: Native Bees Foraging in Fields Are Exposed to
Neonicotinoid Insecticides and other Pesticides (Including Imagery)
To:

This release can be found in the USGS Newsroom at:
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=4381.
[image: USGS main page] <http://www.usgs.gov/>News Release
------------------------------
November 4, 2015Michelle  Hladik916-278-3183mhladik at usgs.gov
<https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=mhladik@usgs.gov>
Mike Focazio703-648-6808mfocazio at usgs.gov
<https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=mfocazio@usgs.gov>
Alex Demas703-648-4421apdemas at usgs.gov
<https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=apdemas@usgs.gov>
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Native Bees Foraging in Fields Are Exposed to Neonicotinoid Insecticides
and other Pesticides

According to the first-ever study of pesticide residues on field-caught
bees, native bees are exposed to neonicotinoid insecticides and other
pesticides. This report was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and
published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

This research focused on native bees, because there is limited information
on their exposure to pesticides. In fact, little is known about how toxic
these pesticides are to native bee species at the levels detected in the
environment. This study did not look at pesticide exposure to honey bees.

“We found that the presence and proximity of nearby agricultural fields was
an important factor resulting in the exposure of native bees to
pesticides,” said USGS scientist Michelle Hladik, the report’s lead author.
“Pesticides were detected in the bees caught in grasslands with no known
direct pesticide applications.”

Although conservation efforts have been shown by other investigators to
benefit pollinators, this study raises questions about the potential for
unintended pesticide exposures where various land uses overlap or are in
proximity to one another.

The research consisted of collecting native bees from cultivated
agricultural fields and grasslands in northeastern Colorado, then
processing the composite bee samples to test for 122 different pesticides,
as well as 14 chemicals formed by the breakdown of pesticides. Scientists
tested for the presence of pesticides both in and on the bees.

The most common pesticide detected was the neonicotinoid insecticide
thiamethoxam, which was found in 46 percent of the composite bee samples.
Thiamethoxam is used as a seed coating on a variety of different crops.
Pesticides were not found in all bee samples, with 15 of the 54 total
samples testing negative for the 122 chemicals examined.

Although this study did not investigate the effects of pesticide exposures
to native bees, previous toxicological studies have shown that the
chemicals do not have to kill the bees to have an adverse effect at the
levels of exposure documented here. For example
<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v521/n7550/full/nature14420.html#affil-auth>,
neonicotinoids can cause a reduction in population densities and
reproductive success, and impair the bees’ ability to forage.  Follow-up
research is now being designed to further investigate adverse effects at
these exposure levels.

There are about 4,000 native species of bees in the United States. They
pollinate native plants like cherries, blueberries and cranberries, and
were here long before European honeybees were brought to the country by
settlers.  In addition, many native bees are quite efficient crop
pollinators, a role that may become more crucially important if honey bees
continue to decline.

This paper is a preliminary, field-based reconnaissance study that provides
critical information necessary to design more focused research on exposure,
uptake and accumulation of pesticides relative to land-use, agricultural
practices and pollinator conservation efforts on the landscape. Another
USGS study <http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=4300#.ViUREBG6e70>published
in August discovered neonicotinoids in in a little more than half of both
urban and agricultural streams sampled across the United States and Puerto
Rico.

“This foundational study is needed to prioritize and design new
environmental exposure experiments on the potential for adverse impacts to
terrestrial organisms,” said Mike Focazio, program coordinator for the USGS
Toxic Substances Hydrology Program. “This and other USGS research is
helping support the overall goals of the White House Strategy to Promote
the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/05/19/announcing-new-steps-promote-pollinator-health>by
helping us understand whether these pesticides, particularly at low levels,
pose a risk for pollinators.”

More information can be found on this paper here
<http://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/2015-11-04-pesticides_bees.html>. USGS
research on the occurrence, transport and fate of pesticides can be found
with the USGS Toxic Substance Hydrology Programwebpage
<http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/pesticides>or the USGS Pesticide Fate
Research project <http://ca.water.usgs.gov/projects/PFRG/>in California.
Stay up to date with USGS Environmental Health science by signing up for
our GeoHealth Newsletter <http://www.usgs.gov/envirohealth/geohealth/>.

Image URLs: http://gallery.usgs.gov/photo_shares/thumbs/tags/NR2015_11_04/1

------------------------------

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###

-- 
Alex Demas
U.S. Geological Survey
Public Affairs Specialist
Subjects: Energy Resources and Environmental Health
(O) 703-648-4421 (C) 571-335-6535 (F) 703-648-4466 (E) apdemas at usgs.gov

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