Akkervogels

The drivers of worldwide insect decline

Pesticide use is driving an “alarming” decline in the world’s insects that could have a “catastrophic” impact on nature’s ecosystems, researchers have warned. More than 40 per cent of insect species are at risk of extinction with decades, with climate change and pollution also to blame, according to a global scientific review. Their numbers are plummeting so precipitously that almost all insects could vanish within a century, the study found.

Pesticides are to blame for millions of birds lost from the New Zealand countryside over the past 30 years

Millions of birds have been lost from New Zealand countryside over the past 30 years. Most of them were introduced birds so have not been missed, but surely someone should have recognised that their loss indicated something had gone very wrong with farmland ecosystems. It is the decline of insects that has had the greatest impact on birds. There is no monitoring of insects in New Zealand to my knowledge.

Zeker tien vogelsoorten in Nederland staan op het punt van uitsterven

De vernietiging van leefgebieden en het verdwijnen van insecten in Nederland hebben de afgelopen decennia veel vogelsoorten bedreigd en zelfs doen uitsterven. Zeker tien vogelsoorten staan op het punt van uitsterven, als er geen maatregelen worden genomen. Dat concludeert het boek Bedreigde vogels in Nederland van de Vogelbescherming, dat woensdag verschijnt.

Nederlandse boerenlandvogelindicator is sinds 1990 met 30% gedaald

De kenmerkende broedvogels van het agrarische gebied gaan in Nederland achteruit. Sinds 1990 is de 'boerenlandvogel indicator' met ongeveer 30% gedaald. Sinds 1960 is de achteruitgang zelfs meer dan 50%. In de plaats van grote aantallen en een grote diversiteit aan boerenlandvogels zijn het tegenwoordig grote groepen ganzen die het vogelbeeld in het agrarisch gebied bepalen.

Bird population decline accelerated after Czech EU entry

The bird population has been declining in Czech farmland, with the decline accelerating since the country's EU entry in 2004, experts from Charles University's Faculty of Sciences write in a study published by the Conservation Letters international journal. The joint European policy and system of agricultural subsidies are unfavourable to birds and wildlife, the study says, cited by the Czech Society for Ornithology (CSO).

Scientists find widely used neonicotinoids in Ontario wild turkeys

Scientists with the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph and Environment and Climate Change Canada examined the livers of 40 wild turkeys in southern Ontario and found nine had detectable levels of neonicotinoids, a group of insecticides that coat the seeds of cash crops such as corn and soy beans to protect them from pests. The insecticide is taken up by the plant and distributed through its tissue as it grows.

Bird populations are being decimated worldwide

A while back we took note of a study that showed populations of airborne insects have declined by 76 percent in protected areas in Germany over the past 27 years. Part of the picture was that the disappearance of bugs is likely to pose problems for other animals in the food chain. Now a recent study by French scientists revealed that bird populations in France’s farming areas have declined by more than one-third in the past 17 years. Both resident and migrant species have decreased sharply.

Agricultural intensification threatens 74% of the 1,469 bird species globally at risk of extinction

One in eight bird species is threatened with global extinction, and once widespread creatures such as the puffin, snowy owl and turtle dove are plummeting towards oblivion, according to the definitive study of global bird populations. The State of the World’s Birds, a five-year compendium of population data from the best-studied group of animals on the planet, reveals a biodiversity crisis driven by the expansion and intensification of agriculture. In all, 74% of 1,469 globally threatened birds are affected primarily by farming.

Das Aussterben der Großtrappen ist nur noch eine Frage der Zeit

Als 1996 ganze 57 Großtrappen (Otis tarda) in Deutschland gezählt wurden, schien das endgültige Aussterben der charismatischen Vogelart nur noch eine Frage weniger Monate zu sein. Dabei waren gerade mal 60 Jahre vergangen, als alleine in der Mark Brandenburg noch 3.400 Großtrappen gezählt wurden. Was war geschehen? Und was musste geschehen, dass der Exodus für Deutschland doch noch verhindert werden konnte?

Fluitende vogeltjes zijn binnenkort verleden tijd

De lente is begonnen, en dan hoor je buiten steeds meer vogeltjes fluiten en zingen. Maar dat is voor toekomstige generaties misschien iets wat ze nooit meer zullen horen. In West-Europese landbouwgebieden gaat het aantal typische vogels, zoals de leeuwerik en de vink, drastisch achteruit. Dat stellen wetenschappers van het Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) en het Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Frankrijk.