Last week, we reported LCCMR funded scholars studied the impact of neonicotinoids on surface and groundwater. The article was mostly a frame for an embedded copy of the scholars' paper.
Now Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Gunderson breaks the academic report down in Researchers find insecticides widespread in Minnesota lakes and rivers:
New research from the University of Minnesota found low levels of neonicotinoid insecticides in lakes and streams across Minnesota.
The widely used insecticides are well known for their effects on bees and other pollinating insects.
Neonicotinoid insecticides are widely used in agriculture; the chemical is applied to many of the seeds farmers plant. It's known as a systemic insecticide because as the plant grows, it takes up the insecticide with water and nutrients.
If an insect tries to eat the plant, it gets a lethal dose of insecticide. Concerns about the impact on pollinators is based on the fact the insecticide is also found in the pollen of flowering plants near farm fields where bees feed.
But the U of M study raises questions about potential environmental effects in lakes and rivers from persistent low levels of insecticides, and about the level of the chemicals in urban waterways.
"They are ubiquitous at low levels at least, with higher levels in certain environments, especially the urban areas, and wastewater treatment effluents," said researcher Matthew Berens, a recent U of M Ph.D. graduate. . . .
The next phase of the research will dive more deeply into the question of how neonicotinoid insecticide in the water is affecting the tiny animals at the bottom of the aquatic food chain, and if that's a factor in the growing problem of large summer algae blooms on lakes.
They also want to better understand the sources of persistent neonicotinoid contamination of water in the urban environment.
"They're potent chemicals," said Arnold. "And especially in the urban environments, the personal choices that we're making about the chemicals we purchase and use for various household reasons have a potential downstream environmental impact. And so your personal choices matter." . . .
Check out the rest at MPR News.
Here's the study:
Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Surface Water, Groundwater, and Wastewater across Land Use Gradients and Pote... uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
Photo: Minnesota's state bee, the Rusty Patch Bumble Bee.
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