Persistent negative effects of pesticides on biodiversity and biological control potential on European farmland

By F. Geiger, J. Bengtsson, F. Berendse, W. Weisser, M. Emmerson, M. Morales, P. Ceryngier, J. Liira, T. Tscharntke, C. Winqvist and 18 more. 2010

1,482 citations recorded by the source corpus.

During the last 50 years, agricultural intensification has caused many wild plant and animal species to go extinct regionally or nationally and has profoundly changed the functioning of agro-ecosystems. Agricultural intensification has many components, such as loss of landscape elements, enlarged farm and field sizes and larger inputs of fertilizer and pesticides. However, very little is known about the relative contribution of these variables to the large-scale negative effects on biodiversity. In this study, we disentangled the impacts of various components of agricultural intensification on species diversity of wild plants, carabids and ground-nesting farmland birds and on the biological control of aphids. In a Europe-wide study in eight West and East European countries, we found important negative effects of agricultural intensification on wild plant, carabid and bird species diversity and on the potential for biological pest control, as estimated from the number of aphids taken by predators. Of the 13 components of intensification we measured, use of insecticides and fungicides had consistent negative effects on biodiversity. Insecticides also reduced the biological control potential. Organic farming and other agri-environment schemes aiming to mitigate the negative

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Insect Science, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/de2b95889faab6c9101fa065bdc0b97aa0a236e0

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. R. Isaacs
2. C. Kremen
3. B. Blaauw
4. T. Tscharntke
5. Vincent Bretagnolle
6. Sabrina Gaba
7. P. Batáry
8. Y. Clough

In Insect Science

1. R. Isaacs
2. C. Kremen
3. B. Blaauw
4. T. Tscharntke
5. Vincent Bretagnolle
6. Sabrina Gaba
7. Y. Clough
8. P. Batáry

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. T. Tscharntke
2. P. Batáry
3. C. Kremen
4. R. Isaacs
5. Romain Julliard
6. Frédéric Jiguet
7. Y. Clough
8. P. Tittonell

Citations in the corpus

• Does landscape composition affect pest abundance and their control by natural enemies? A review (2013, background): “…application as shown for grass strips which provide efuge for polyphagous carabids at times of pesticide application Lee et al., 2001) or the proportion of land under organic mangement around the field which has a positive effect on natural nemies and CBC effectiveness (Geiger et al., 2010).”
• Ecological intensification of agriculture — sustainable by nature (2014, background): “Yet one thing is known for certain: the current model of agricultural intensification is not sustainable (socially and thermodynamically), it is neither ecological nor eco-efficient, it is ineffective at feeding the world, it is harmful for the environment and contributes to biodiversity loss [15–21”
• The role of abiotic factors modulating the plant-microbe-soil interactions: toward sustainable agriculture. A review (2017, background): “Nutrient limitation problems are usually readily solved immediately with the application of chemical fertilizers, which have negative effects for the environment and for human and animal health (Geiger et al., 2010).”
• Agronomic Efficiency of Animal-Derived Organic Fertilizers and Their Effects on Biology and Fertility of Soil: A Review (2021, background): “The majority of these inorganic substances are persistent [12], not readily degraded by natural microorganisms, which can reduce soil viability and negatively affect the quality of produce [13].”
• A Sustainable Agricultural Future Relies on the Transition to Organic Agroecological Pest Management (2018, background): “In addition, reduction in bird species diversity was associated with increased fungicide and insecticide use [95].”
• Integrated crop and livestock systems in Western Europe and South America: A review (2014, background): “A long-term experiment conducted by INIA Estanzuela in Uruguay (Gentile et al., 2005) highlights the advantages of rotations including temporary pasture for the dynamics of organic matter in the first 20 cm of soil (Fig.”
• Prescriptive Evolution to Conserve and Manage Biodiversity (2014, background): “Agricultural lands harbor a large proportion of biodiversity, and the billions of pounds of pesticides applied annually (Grube et al. 2011) place these habitats under special threat (Geiger et al. 2010).”