Incremental contribution of pollination and other ecosystem services to agricultural productivity: effects of service quantity and quality

Abstract

This chapter presents the potential impact of agricultural pesticides on bees, which are beneficial insects that are important pollinators of both crops and wild plants. It describes the ecology of bees in intensively cultivated landscapes and the routes by which they are exposed to agrochemical toxicants. Neurotoxicants act by disrupting the otherwise coordinated activity of the insect nervous system. The chapter addresses the responses of regulatory authorities to meeting the challenge of deciding whether to allow a toxicant to be marketed as a plant protection product (PPP). It considers non-insecticides only insofar as they directly exacerbate the toxicity of insecticides by the so-called cocktail effect' and not for their indirectly detrimental effects on the environment of bees, such as reducing the abundance of wild flowers. In bees, the most sensitive endpoint that has been measured to date is the fecundity of bumble bees, as affected by a dietary neonicotinoid, imidacloprid.