Decomposition of organic matter is a critical function in streams and is important for their food webs. Because of this, organic matter decomposition is the subject of many studies. In this blog post, Verena Schreiner talks about a recently published paper in which decomposition was analysed using different substrates.
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In this blog post, Carsten Brühl is explaining the background and findings of a review produced together with colleagues of the Central American Institute for Studies on Toxic Substances (IRET) at Universidad Nacional (UNA), in Costa Rica that focusses on pesticide use in banana plantations and addresses exposure and effects in environment and human health. The review is the result of a DFG – Conare collaboration funding.
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In this blog post, Sebastian Stehle presents a meta-analysis on the exposure and risks of the most widely used insecticides in the world, neonicotinoids, for global agricultural surface waters. Although acute risks for aquatic organisms from neonicotinoid exposure appear to be low, risk assessment results also show chronic risks to be of critical concern. Importantly, official regulatory threshold levels (RTLs) determined for pesticide authorization differed widely between countries, indicating large uncertainties and regulatory challenges in defining robust and protective threshold levels for neonicotinoids.
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It has recently been discovered that plastic debris can form crusts on intertidal rocks. This phenomenon has been termed- plasticrust, but the formation process and potential plastic sources are unknown. In this study, we show for the first time that discarded maritime ropes are plasticrust sources and that summer rock surface temperature can contribute to plasticrust formation.
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In this blogpost, Jakob Wolfram talks about his recent study “Pesticide occurrence in protected surface waters in nature conservation areas of Germany”. In the study, he analyzed millions of records detailing the occurrence of pesticides in surface waters. The study showed that pesticides frequently occur in strictly protected nature conservation areas and could jeopardize their ecological integrity.
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Predicting effects of chemicals in ecosystems is complex due to many factors that influence the action of chemicals. Moreover, understanding chemical effects in ecosystems requires the integration of multiple levels of biological organisation such as cells, organs, organisms, whole populations, communities or ecosystems, which is rarely done. In this blogpost, Anke Schneeweiss and her research team provide a framework for how to integrate these levels by delineating connections between different ecotoxicological perspectives.
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In this second installment of the ‘Glimpse of the year 2022’ series, we give our readers a glance of another 3 most visited posts in this year.
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In the first part of the ‘Glimpse of the year 2022’ series, we give our readers a glance of 3 most visited posts about scientific publications in this year.
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In this blogpost, Moritz Link reports how pesticide toxicity affects stream ecosystems in Transylvania, Romania, a region where traditional agriculture prevails. The researchers analyzed macroinvertebrate communities, leaf litter decomposition and parasite prevalence in relation to physico-chemical stressors in the stream and the landscape.
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Interest in microplastic contamination in Antarctica is very recent. For this reason, researchers from University of Koblenz – Landau (Germany) and Universidad de Concepcion (Chile) decided to find out a little more about what is happening in the land of the penguins.
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