Neonicotinoids, bee disorders and the sustainability of pollinator services

By J. P. van der Sluijs, N. Simon-Delso, Dave Goulson, L. Maxim, J. Bonmatin, Luc P. Belzunces. 2013

484 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In less than 20 years, neonicotinoids have become the most widely used class of insecticides with a global market share of more than 25%. For pollinators, this has transformed the agrochemical landscape. These chemicals mimic the acetylcholine neurotransmitter and are highly neurotoxic to insects. Their systemic mode of action inside plants means phloemic and xylemic transport that results in translocation to pollen and nectar. Their wide application, persistence in soil and water and potential for uptake by succeeding crops and wild plants make neonicotinoids bioavailable to pollinators at sublethal concentrations for most of the year. This results in the frequent presence of neonicotinoids in honeybee hives. At field realistic doses, neonicotinoids cause a wide range of adverse sublethal effects in honeybee and bumblebee colonies, affecting colony performance through impairment of foraging success, brood and larval development, memory and learning, damage to the central nervous system, susceptibility to diseases, hive hygiene etc. Neonicotinoids exhibit a toxicity that can be amplified by various other agrochemicals and they synergistically reinforce infectious agents such as Nosema ceranae which together can produce colony collapse. The limited available data suggest that they are likely to exhibit similar toxicity to virtually all other wild insect pollinators. The worldwide production of neonicotinoids is still increasing. Therefore a transition to pollinator-friendly alternatives to neonicotinoids is urgently needed for the sake of the sustainability of pollinator ecosystem services.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5bfd6f4b80d0419ec820c72efbcb06ea34932cc7

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Citations in the corpus

Bats in the Anthropogenic Matrix: Challenges and Opportunities for the Conservation of Chiroptera and Their Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscapes (2016, background): “The neonicotinoids, once touted for their low toxicity, have now been linked to major declines in bees (Van der Sluijs et al. 2013) and more recently in several species of passerines as a result of insect resource depletion (Hallmann et al. 2014).”
Environmental fate and exposure; neonicotinoids and fipronil (2014, background): “Currently licensed for the management of insect pests in more than 120 countries, the class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids represent some of the most popular and widely used insecticides in the world (Jeschke et al. 2011; Van der Sluijs et al. 2013; Simon-Delso et al. 2014, this issue).”
Systemic insecticides (neonicotinoids and fipronil): trends, uses, mode of action and metabolites (2014, background): “…of nicotinic receptors with high affinity to neonicotinoids, which is why neonicotinoids generally show a priori higher toxicity to invertebrates than vertebrates (including human, e.g., USEPA 2003a; Tomizawa and Casida 2003; Tomizawa and Casida 2005; Liu et al. 2010; Van der Sluijs et al. 2013).”
Planting of neonicotinoid‐treated maize poses risks for honey bees and other non‐target organisms over a wide area without consistent crop yield benefit (2017, unknown): “The neonicotinoid insecticides include the most widely used insecticides in the world (Jeschke et al. 2011; Van der Sluijs et al. 2013).”
Keeping invertebrate research ethical in a landscape of shifting public opinion (2019, background): “…plight and decline of pollinators, with over 99,000 people signing a petitioning against neonicotinoids to the UK government (Petitions, 2015) after concerns were raised about the impact of these pesticides on pollinators (Rundlöf et al., 2015; Van der Sluijs et al., 2013; Whitehorn et al., 2012).”