Insecticide Makes "Anorexic" Birds

 The insecticide imidacloprid has serious side effects on many species, including bees and birds.  In the article, the way the chemical affects birds is explained.  This chemical is used on a wide variety of American agricultural crops, and it falls into the neonicotinoids, which resemble nicotine and it's effects.  In order to understand how the chemical affected the birds, scientists created three groups of birds (one with a high-dosage of insecticide, one with a smaller dosage, and one with no ingestion of insecticide) in order to see how each one reacted to the chemical.  The high-dosage birds lost an average of 17.1% body fat and 70% decrease food consumption.  The low-dosage group saw a 9.3% decrease in body fat and 8% decrease in food consumption, which is hardly impactful.  The control group saw no changes.  The higher the dosage the birds had, the slower they migrated north, which affects their breeding cycle.  Scientists are lobbying for an integrated pest management (IPM) agriculture in order to save the lives of these birds.

This current event is important to me because I would like to see the planet and all of it's animals thrive on earth.  With this big discovery, we might be able to counteract the harmful effects of this insecticide by finding alternative ways to use pest control.  I like this article because I think it is a big step in moving away from harmful chemicals to a more eco-friendly agriculture for our environment.

Click here for the article :)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dual-fuel vehicles

A recent study shows that dual- fuel vehicles are benefiting the population but, turns out they are costing the environment. While substituting gasoline for ethanol gases, it causes an increase of ultra fine particle matter, with a 30% increase of atmospheric concentration. The problem is that they are less then 50 nanometers in diameter. The nano particles are also not track or regulated by the environmental agencies. We inhale these gases everyday, inhaling ethanol. The most practical way to reduce greenhouse gases is using electric, hybrid and biofuel care.   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170828124546.htm
Read more

Acid Zone in Chesapeake Bay Found

     According to the University of Delaware, the Chesapeake Bay is becoming acidic as it has gone to 7.4 pH from an average of 8.2. The oxidation of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide may be the factor that is leading to the higher acidity levels in coastal oceans, but it can eventually lead to more of open oceans. Naturally the waters of the Chesapeake Bay have a regulatory system that holds back the increase of acidity levels in the area, and this works as the dissolving of living shells, non-living aragonite, and calcite minerals. Though nature has a path to keep the waters in the Chesapeake Bay, humans should take more care of our Earth as we have a role in polluting the water and rising the acidity levels in coastal oceans. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170828093737.htm
Read more