Universiẗat, Diss., 1999--Bremen.

Designed for the protection of major agricultural crops, neonicotinoids are the fastest-growing class of insecticides used against a broad spectrum of insect pests. Although neonicotinoid toxicity toward non-target organisms (e.g., bees, aquatic insects) has been well-studied, less is known about their distribution of use, transport, and fate in North American agroecosystems. This is especially true of neonicotinoid interactions with wetlands in the Canadian Prairies. Between 2009 and 2012, neonicotinoid use as a seed treatment increased by 30% across the Canadian Prairies. During spring 2012 to spring 2013, I sampled water and sediment from 136 wetlands situated in a range of crop types across central Saskatchewan to determine the extent of neonicotinoid contamination. Wetlands situated in oat, canola, and barley fields consistently contained higher neonicotinoid concentrations in water than in grasslands, but no single crop influenced overall detections. Neonicotinoid detections in water varied from 16% (fall 2012) to 91% (spring 2013) with peak concentrations up to 3110 ng/L found in summer. I found numerous detections of neonicotinoids in spring, after ice-off, but before seeding. Through sampling snow, snow meltwater, and soil particulates from previously treated (clothianidin) and untreated fields, meltwater showed the strongest relationship to initial spring concentrations in wetland water. Neonicotinoid concentrations increased with time in shallow temporary wetlands which appeared most at risk for annual contamination. While snowmelt contamination influenced water concentrations in spring, peak concentrations in wetlands were consistently found during summer sampling completed in 2012-2014. Rapid wetland assessments completed on 238 wetlands (summer of 2012 and 2013) revealed key ecological, hydrological and landscape features that influenced neonicotinoid detections and peak concentrations in Prairie wetlands. The results of my exploratory analysis indicated that plant community composition is a key indicator and/or driver of both detection and concentration of neonicotinoids in Prairie wetlands. In particular, specific shallow marsh plants were commonly associated with either higher (e.g., Scirpus validus) or lower (e.g., Mentha arvensis) neonicotinoid concentrations in natural wetlands suggesting wetland macrophytes in this zone may be either indicators of agricultural disturbance intensity or differentially capable of accumulating the insecticide in its tissue. Therefore, in 2014, I conducted an outdoor microcosm experiment to evaluate thiamethoxam uptake from water by Typha latifolia and Alisma triviale using two concentrations over a 7-day period. Experimental results found some trace positive detections but no quantifiable accumulation of the insecticide in plant tissues. This is despite the fact that results of my 2015 field study found species of Typha, Alisma and Equisetum had neonicotinoids more frequently detected in their tissues, at concentrations ranging from 1.01-8.44 ug/kg. My findings demonstrate that neonicotinoid distribution and fate in Canadian Prairie agroecosystems is driven by interactions between ecological, hydrological, and landscape characteristics. Consequently, these drivers regulate neonicotinoid exposure and persistence in ecologically important regional wetlands. In order to effectively conserve these critical waterbodies, conservation planning should consider the importance of maintaining naturally diverse vegetation zones to mitigate insecticide exposure to wetland-dependant organisms.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-02-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:30:16Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 vomero_pasz_me_botfca.pdf: 1443571 bytes, checksum: 5ec69ec8c36c661017edfbdefbcc0951 (MD5) / Cia Suzano de Papel e Celulose Ltda / Para manter a qualidade das mudas de eucalipto no plantio e garantir rápido desenvolvimento, é recomendada a imersão das mesmas em solução de fertilizantes nitrogenados e cupinicidas. A imersão algumas vezes é realizada com o substrato saturado com água, podendo então, haver redução da ação esperada. Portanto, este trabalho visou avaliar o desenvolvimento inicial em campo de dois clones de eucalipto imersos em solução de fertilizante e cupinicida com diferentes teores de umidade no substrato. Neste estudo foram utilizados dois clones híbridos de eucalipto (“urograndis”), codificados como VT 05 e VT 04, recomendados para região de Luiz Antonio, SP, onde o experimento foi instalado, e identificados no experimento como clone 1 e clone 2 respectivamente. O delineamento experimental foi do tipo fatorial 2x2x3, com dois clones, duas situações de umidade para substrato (denominadas saturada e seco) e três situações de calda (sulfato de amônio com e sem cupinicida e testemunha), interagindo o fertilizante sulfato de amônio a 1 % e o cupinicida fipronil a 0,5 %, totalizando doze tratamentos e quatro repetições. Após o plantio foi mensurado o diâmetro de colo e altura de muda das 12 mudas centrais de cada parcela, realizando essas medições por 2 meses em intervalos de 15 dias. Posteriormente foi determinado as taxas de incremento para altura e diâmetro do colo para cada período, sendo, esses dados submetidos à análise de variância e as médias comparadas pelo teste de Tukey com significância de 5%. Foram verificadas diferenças nas taxas de crescimento entre os dois clones estudados, independentemente dos tratamentos com umidade do substrato... / To maintain the sapling quality at planting and ensure fast development, it is recommended the sapling immersion in solution of nitrogen fertilizers and termiticides. The immersion is sometimes performed with the substrate saturated with water, thus, can occur reduction of expected action. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the initial development in the field of two eucalyptus clones immersed in solution of fertilizer and termiticide with different levels of moisture in the substrate. In this study, it was used two hybrid clones of eucalyptus (“urograndis ), codified as VT 05 and VT 04, recommended for the region of Luiz Antonio, SP, Brazil, where the experiment was carried out, and identified as clone 1 and clone 2, respectively. The experimental design was 2x2x3 factorial, with two clones, two situations of substrate moisture (wet and dry) and three different solution interacting fertilizer ammonium sulfate at 1% and termiticide fipronil at 0.5%, totaling twelve treatments and four replications. After planting was measured the saplings stem diameter and height of 12 central plants of each plot, with evaluations made during 2 months at intervals of 15 days. Using data from field samples was determined rates of increase for height and stem diameter for each period, and these data were submitted to ANOVA and means compared by Tukey test with a significance of 5%. There were differences in growth rates between the two clones, regardless of treatment with substrate moisture and termiticide. The presence of termiticide did not affect the rates of increase in height and diameter in two eucalyptus clones tested. The variation of moisture from the substrate -root seedlings set of Eucalyptus did not affect the rates of increase in height and diameter in two eucalyptus clones tested. There was better use of the product used during the immersion of seedlings when the substrate is less... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Neonicotinoid exposure has been recognised as potentially impacting upon bee health, but whether realistic exposure scenarios are driving declines in bee health is not known. This thesis contributes new insights and perspectives to this research field investigating the use of molecular, physiological and behavioural endpoints as potential ecotoxicological markers for pesticide risk assessment. The thesis presents experimental data for dietary exposures of the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, and the buff-tailed bumble bee, Bombus terrestris, to one of two neonicotinoid pesticides, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. The first part of this thesis explores impacts of chronic dietary exposures to neonicotinoid pesticides on bee immunocompetence- the ability to mount an immune response- using an artificial challenge to invoke an immune response in adult workers. Levels of phenoloxidase, an enzyme involved in melanisation and part of the bee’s defence system, were largely constitutive and resilient to exposure in honey bees and bumble bees. In honey bees, transient transcriptional changes in antimicrobial effector genes were observed following neonicotinoid exposure, but the physiological antimicrobial response was unaffected. In bumble bees, the induced antimicrobial response was impaired following neonicotinoid exposure, but only when exposed to concentrations likely higher than realistic environmental exposure scenarios. The next phase of this thesis investigates whether transcriptional, physiological and behavioural endpoints associated with the functioning of the honey bee hypopharyngeal gland were altered by imidacloprid exposure. Imidacloprid exposure led to transcriptional changes in foraging genes (associated with the control of temporal polyethism) and major royal jelly proteins (fed to developing larvae by nurse workers) and enzymatic changes in glucose oxidase (an enzyme involved in social immunity), which I hypothesise are linked with hypopharyngeal gland development. Despite these laboratory observations, no behavioural effects were observed in a field setting, monitored using Radio Frequency Identification transponders. Lastly, using RNA-Sequencing to investigate changes across the honey bee transcriptome, this thesis identified a suite of genes that were differentially expressed in adult workers in response to immune challenge and/or dietary neonicotinoid exposure. Wounding and bacterial-like infection led to upregulation of known immune genes, including a peptidoglycan recognition protein and antimicrobial effectors. Chronic exposure to thiamethoxam and imidacloprid led to downregulation of genes associated with several metabolic pathways, such as oxidative phosphorylation, pyruvate- and purine- metabolic pathways, as well as ribosomal activity. Some of these genes identified provide candidates for further study to elucidate functional effects mechanisms and better understand health outcomes, as well as potential new biomarkers for use in pesticide risk assessment. This thesis presents novel findings and offers opportunities for future research that will be of interest to a wide audience, including risk assessors and policy makers, as well as the broader biological community, including ecotoxicologists, insect physiologists and molecular biologists.

Memoria para optar al Título de Ingeniero Agrónomo Mención Enología / La conchuela café europea (Parthenolecanium corni (Bouché)) es una plaga ocasional de la vid vinífera en Chile, siendo usualmente controlada con insecticidas convencionales, residuales, de amplio espectro y alta toxicidad aguda. Este estudio evaluó la mortalidad de P. corni infestando Vitis vinifera L. cv. Chardonnay asperjadas con productos no residuales, de baja toxicidad aguda y, en general, selectivos. Fueron probados Nofly® aplicado al 0,2% p/v (esporas del hongo entomopatógeno Paecilomyces fumosoroseus); Bugitol® al 0,25% y 0,5% v/v (formulado con extractos de ají y mostaza); Biomilbe® al 1% (en base a ácidos grasos vegetales); Tecsa® Fruta al 0,5% y 1%, y TS 2035 al 0,5 y 1% (ambos detergentes agrícolas); y el aceite mineral Winspray® miscible al 0,5% y 1%. Confidor® 200 SL al 0.1% (i.a. = imidacloprid), fue usado como estándar, y plantas sin pulverizar constituyeron los controles. El diseño experimental fue en bloques completamente al azar con tres repeticiones de 40 plantas cada parcela. En el primer ensayo (principios de verano) se evaluó la acción insecticida de los 12 tratamientos descritos antes, aplicados una sola vez, mientras que en el segundo ensayo (mediados de verano) se evaluaron sólo los tratamientos más promisorios probados anteriormente, asperjados dos veces consecutivas. Las aspersiones se hicieron con nebulizadora (usando el equivalente a 1.000 L agua/ha de agua por hectárea) y cuando el primer estado ninfal estaba mayoritariamente emergido y fijado en el follaje. La mortalidad en hojas se determinó bajo lupa estereoscópica (% de individuos deshidratados, sin emitir hemolinfa después de punzar 1.000 ninfas/repetición) y se midió la fitotoxicidad (necrosis foliar, defoliación, o partidura de la fruta). Los 12 tratamientos iniciales se aplicaron el 28 de diciembre de 2011 (inicios de verano), y aquellos productos que mostraron diferencias con el control después de las aspersiones, fueron aplicados nuevamente en dos ocasiones, los días 7 y 10 de febrero de 2012 (mediados de verano). Los datos fueron sometidos a Andeva y la prueba de Tukey (p<0,05). A principios de verano, se observó una mortalidad significativamente mayor con imidacloprid (61% de mortalidad), TS 2035 (29%) y Winspray® miscible (16%), frente a sólo el 4% de mortalidad del control. Los demás tratamientos no se diferenciaron del testigo. Después de la aplicación doble a mediados de verano, la mortalidad de ninfas fue estadísticamente similar entre TS 2035 (58%) y Winspray® miscible (28%), mayor que el control (8%), pero significativamente menor que el imidacloprid (94%). No se observaron signos de fitotoxicidad después de las aspersiones. Estos resultados sugieren que insecticidas “alternativos”, como detergentes agrícolas y aceites minerales, proporcionan un control significativo de P. corni en viñedos, pero menor al tratamiento estándar (imidacloprid). Sin embargo, el control con los productos “alternativos” casi se duplicó al usarlos dos veces en un corto período de tiempo, abriendo posibilidades para mejorar los resultados realizando aspersiones repetidas durante el período de infestación de ninfas en las hojas. / The european fruit lecanium (Parthenolecanium corni (Bouché)) is an ocassional pest of wine vines in Chile, being usually controlled with conventional, residual, broad spectrum, and high acute toxicity insecticides. This study evaluated the mortality of P. corni infesting Vitis vinifera L. cv. Chardonnay sprayed with no residual, low acute toxicity and, in general, selective products. Nofly® applied at 0,2% w/v (= spores of the entomopathogenic fungus Paecilomyces fumosoroseus); Bugitol® at 0,25% y 0,5% v/v (formulated with extracts of chili and mustard); Biomilbe® at 1% (based on vegetable fatty acids); Tecsa® Fruta at 0,5% and 1%, and TS 2035 at 0,5% and 1% (both agricultural detergents); and mineral oil Winspray® miscible at 0,5% and 1% were tested. Confidor® 200 SL at 0,1% (a.i.= imidacloprid) was used as the standard, and unsprayed plants constituted the controls. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with three replicates of 40 plants each plot. In the first trial (beginning of the summer) the insecticidal action of the 12 treatments (see above), applied just once was evaluated, while in the second trial (mid-summer) only the most promising treatments previously tested were evaluated, sprayed consecutive twice. Sprays were made with an air blast sprayer (using the equivalent of 1000 liters of water per ha) and when the first nymphal stage was mostly emerged and installed on the foliage. Mortality in leaves was determined under stereomicroscope (% of dehydrated individuals, without releasing hemolymph after 1000 nymphs/replicate being punctured) and phytotoxicity (leave necrosis, defoliation, or fruit skin splitting) were measured. The 12 original treatments were applied on December the 28th 2011 (early summer), and those products showing differences with the control after the sprays were applied again twice, on 7th and 10th February in 2012 (mid summer). Data were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey test (p<0.05). In early summer, significantly greater mortality was observed with imidacloprid (61% mortality), TS 2035 (29%) and Winspray® miscible (16%), against just 4% control mortality. The remaining treatments were not different from the control. After the double application in mid summer, nymphal mortality was statistically similar between TS 2035 (58%) and Winspray® miscible (28%), greater than the control (8%), but significantly lower than imidacloprid (94%). No phytotoxic symptoms were observed after sprays. These results suggest that “alternative” insecticides, as agricultural detergents and mineral oils, provided significant control of P. corni in vineyards, but lower than the standard treatment (imidacloprid). However, the control with “alternative” products almost doubled using them twice in a short period of time, opening chances to improve results making repeated sprays during the period of nymphal infestation on leaves.

Due to a lack of in-situ methods capable of detecting sub-lethal effects of pollutants on soil organisms, many polluted environments are not identified prior to pollution-induced changes in the soil fauna. Therefore, there is a need to develop new non-invasive methods to measure the health of soil organisms. This study aimed to assess to what extent surface borne vibrations can inform about ant health effects from exposure to sublethal doses of a pesticide (imidacloprid). Twelve ant colonies were set up with artificial nests and fed a glucose and imidacloprid solution (0.01 mg/L, 0.1 mg/L, 1 mg/L and 10 mg/L imidacloprid). After two days, five random ants were placed in an arena where the vibrations were recorded in five one-minute blocks using a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV). No significant difference was found in activity per minute between the different concentrations, although there was a measurable increase in mortality between the concentrations from the second day of exposure to the fifth. Even so, the LDV may still be a viable method, as it clearly recorded vibrations caused by ant movement. If more ants were recorded for longer periods, and more replicates were used, it seems likely the method would have been sensitive enough to detect the effect of the studied pesticide. With an improved experiment design, using the LDV for this purpose may be possible, and the current lack of such a method necessitates further research on the subject.

No description available.

[pt] Um procedimento analítico é considerado apropriado para uma aplicação específica quando é capaz de gerar resultados confiáveis, que possibilitem a tomada de decisão com grau de confiança adequado, sendo sua adequação consolidada mediante a realização de ensaios de validação. Este trabalho propõe a utilização de um procedimento analítico alternativo, mais simples e econômico, baseado na técnica espectrofotométrica de absorção molecular, para quantificação de imidacloprid, um inseticida sistêmico, em amostras de solução aquosa. Foi demonstrado que o procedimento proposto é adequado ao uso pretendido descrevendo-se, detalhadamente, cada etapa da validação, considerando-se os limites estabelecidos para cada parâmetro de validação e aplicando-se técnicas estatísticas apropriadas na avaliação dos mesmos: análise de variância, análise de regressão, testes de significância, gráficos de controle e a estimativa da incerteza de medição. As incertezas de medição dos procedimentos de rotina e alternativo foram estimadas e comparadas às tolerâncias estipuladas, estabelecendo o procedimento alternativo como adequado. Uma comparação experimental deste procedimento com o de rotina (baseado em HPLC) foi realizada como parte do protocolo de validação. Além da avaliação do procedimento para quantificação de imidacloprid em nível de traços, foi investigada também a possibilidade de sua utilização, para a quantificação do mesmo ingrediente ativo em produtos formulados. Neste caso, foi demonstrado, através da comparação das incertezas estimadas às tolerâncias estabelecidas, que o procedimento alternativo não é adequado, por apresentar incertezas na ordem de aproximadamente 50% do valor destas tolerâncias, não possuindo assim o rigor metrológico requerido para esta aplicação. / [en] Fit for purpose analytical procedures must be sufficiently reliable to support any decision taken based on the generated results. In order to achieve that, consolidated adequacy evaluation of the analytical procedure must be obtained by performing validation experiments. In this work, an alternative and simpler spectrophotometric method for the quantification of imidacloprid in aqueous samples was compared to the HPLC-UV based reference method used in routine. The overall validation procedure started with a detailed description of each validation stage, followed by the settling of the limits for each of the validation parameters and then, applying the following statistical techniques to evaluate each of the parameters: ANOVA, regression analysis, significance tests, control charts and uncertainty estimation. The measurement of uncertainties estimation, based on ISO-GUM recommendations, was done for both analytical procedures (the alternative one and the reference one). After comparing these uncertainties with the tolerance values, the adequacy of the alternative proposed procedure was confirmed. Finally, by consolidating the validation, the experimental comparison of quantification methods was conducted. Besides evaluating the analytical procedure for trace-level imidacloprid quantification in water samples, the proposed method was also evaluated as the analytical procedure for imidacloprid based formulated products. In this case, it was demonstrated that the spectrophotometric method did not present the requested metrological requirements for such application, since the estimated uncertainties of the alternative procedure were about 50 % of the tolerance values.

Impaired function of the human intestinal epithelial barrier (IEB) might allow for permeability of harmful substances, such as obesogens, which induce obesity and further implications. Tight junction (TJ) proteins are the key component for normal functions of the barrier. In this master thesis, the correlation between increased TJ permeability of the IEB and absorption of obesogens was studied. The effect of obesogens on TJ expression was also investigated. Permeability tests performed on Caco-2 cell monolayers exposed to obesogens showed altered permeability, indicating that obesogens might have an effect on TJ protein expression. Furthermore, impaired monolayers showed increased permeability, which implies that impaired functions of IEB lead to increased absorption of obesogens.

Orientador: Carlos Frederico Wilcken / Banca: Magali Ribeiro da Silva / Banca: Leonardo Rodrigues Barbosa / Resumo: Para manter a qualidade das mudas de eucalipto no plantio e garantir rápido desenvolvimento, é recomendada a imersão das mesmas em solução de fertilizantes nitrogenados e cupinicidas. A imersão algumas vezes é realizada com o substrato saturado com água, podendo então, haver redução da ação esperada. Portanto, este trabalho visou avaliar o desenvolvimento inicial em campo de dois clones de eucalipto imersos em solução de fertilizante e cupinicida com diferentes teores de umidade no substrato. Neste estudo foram utilizados dois clones híbridos de eucalipto ("urograndis"), codificados como VT 05 e VT 04, recomendados para região de Luiz Antonio, SP, onde o experimento foi instalado, e identificados no experimento como clone 1 e clone 2 respectivamente. O delineamento experimental foi do tipo fatorial 2x2x3, com dois clones, duas situações de umidade para substrato (denominadas saturada e seco) e três situações de calda (sulfato de amônio com e sem cupinicida e testemunha), interagindo o fertilizante sulfato de amônio a 1 % e o cupinicida fipronil a 0,5 %, totalizando doze tratamentos e quatro repetições. Após o plantio foi mensurado o diâmetro de colo e altura de muda das 12 mudas centrais de cada parcela, realizando essas medições por 2 meses em intervalos de 15 dias. Posteriormente foi determinado as taxas de incremento para altura e diâmetro do colo para cada período, sendo, esses dados submetidos à análise de variância e as médias comparadas pelo teste de Tukey com significância de 5%. Foram verificadas diferenças nas taxas de crescimento entre os dois clones estudados, independentemente dos tratamentos com umidade do substrato... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: To maintain the sapling quality at planting and ensure fast development, it is recommended the sapling immersion in solution of nitrogen fertilizers and termiticides. The immersion is sometimes performed with the substrate saturated with water, thus, can occur reduction of expected action. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the initial development in the field of two eucalyptus clones immersed in solution of fertilizer and termiticide with different levels of moisture in the substrate. In this study, it was used two hybrid clones of eucalyptus ("urograndis "), codified as VT 05 and VT 04, recommended for the region of Luiz Antonio, SP, Brazil, where the experiment was carried out, and identified as clone 1 and clone 2, respectively. The experimental design was 2x2x3 factorial, with two clones, two situations of substrate moisture (wet and dry) and three different solution interacting fertilizer ammonium sulfate at 1% and termiticide fipronil at 0.5%, totaling twelve treatments and four replications. After planting was measured the saplings stem diameter and height of 12 central plants of each plot, with evaluations made during 2 months at intervals of 15 days. Using data from field samples was determined rates of increase for height and stem diameter for each period, and these data were submitted to ANOVA and means compared by Tukey test with a significance of 5%. There were differences in growth rates between the two clones, regardless of treatment with substrate moisture and termiticide. The presence of termiticide did not affect the rates of increase in height and diameter in two eucalyptus clones tested. The variation of moisture from the substrate -root seedlings set of Eucalyptus did not affect the rates of increase in height and diameter in two eucalyptus clones tested. There was better use of the product used during the immersion of seedlings when the substrate is less... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre