Carsten A. Brühl

Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau | TUK · Institute for Environmental Sceinces Landau

Wild and domesticated bee species are exposed to a variety of pesticides which may drive pollinator decline. Due to wild bee sensitivity data shortage, it is unclear if the honey bee Apis mellifera is a suitable surrogate species in the current EU risk assessment scheme. Furthermore, the underlying causes for sensitivity differences in bees are...

Field margins are important seminatural habitats in agro-ecosystems, but they can be negatively affected by pesticide inputs via direct overspray and spray drift. In Germany, risk mitigation measures (like buffer zones) to reduce pesticide inputs in terrestrial noncrop habitats do not have to be put in place by farmers next to narrow field margins...

Pollination is a crucial plant–animal interaction in ecosystems, and moths (Lepidoptera) are a widespread and species-rich group of flower visitors. In this article, plant and moth species connected via pollination interactions were identified from the literature, and information on the relevance of moth pollination in various ecosystems, including...

Amphibians, a class of animals in global decline, are present in agricultural landscapes characterized by agrochemical inputs. Effects of pesticides on terrestrial life stages of amphibians such as juvenile and adult frogs, toads and newts are little understood and a specific risk assessment for pesticide exposure, mandatory for other vertebrate gr...

Current use pesticides (CUPs) are recognised as the largest deliberate input of bioactive substances into terrestrial ecosystems and one of the main factors responsible for the current decline in insects in agricultural areas. To quantify seasonal insect exposure in the landscape at a regional scale (Rhineland-Palatine in Germany), we analysed the...

Chironomid (Diptera: Chironomidae) larvae play a key role in aquatic food webs as prey for predators like amphibian and dragonfly larvae. This trophic link may be disrupted by anthropogenic stressors such as Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti), a biocide widely used in mosquito control. In a companion study, we recorded a 41% reduction of...

Chironomidae are the most abundant aquatic insect group and are important in providing energy and nutrients to aquatic and terrestrial food webs. The stress response of Chironomidae can vary with environmental conditions and time of pollutant exposure, making it difficult to understand the underlying mechanisms. Here, we use a dynamic population mo...

Zusammenfassung Es wird über die Nachweise und die Ausbreitung der zwei nichtwirtswechselnden Blattlausarten Crypturaphis grassii Silvestri, 1935 und Neotoxoptera formosana (Takahashi, 1921) in Deutschland berichtet. Auf hohe Besiedelungsdichte reagiert die monophage, nur Alnus cordata besiedelnde C. grassii mit der verstärkten Produktion von geflü...

Bats are the second largest mammalian order and are an endangered species group with a strong need for contamination monitoring. To facilitate non-invasive monitoring of the ecological burden in bat populations, a multiresidue method for the simultaneous quantification of 119 analytes including pesticides, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), acti...

Pesticides are transferred outside of cropland and can affect animals and plants. Here we investigated the distribution of 97 current use pesticides in soil and vegetation as central exposure matrices of insects. Sampling was conducted on 53 sites along eleven altitudinal transects in the Vinschgau valley (South Tyrol, Italy), in Europe's largest a...

The decline of insect abundance and richness has been documented for decades and has received increased attention in recent years. In 2017, a study by Hallmann and colleagues on insect biomasses in German nature protected areas received a great deal of attention and provided the impetus for the creation of the project Diversity of Insects in Nature...

This is the automatic DeepL french translation of: Ceci est la traduction automatique (avec DeepL) de l'article anglais suivant: Brühl, C. A., Després, L., Frör, O., Patil, C. D., Poulin, B., Tetreau, G., & Allgeier, S. (2020). Environmental and socioeconomic effects of mosquito control in Europe using the biocide Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. isra...

The problem of global amphibian declines has prompted extensive research over the last three decades. Initially, the focus was on identifying and characterizing the extent of the problem, but more recently efforts have shifted to evidence-based research designed to identify best solutions and to improve conservation outcomes. Despite extensive accu...

A simple acetonitrile-based extraction method for the determination of 98 current-use pesticides (CUPs) in soil and herbaceous vegetation using HPLC-ESI-MS/MS is reported. The method was optimized in terms of extraction time, buffer (ammonium formate) ratio, and graphitized carbon black (GCB) ratio for the clean-up of vegetation. The validated meth...

Herbicides are the most widely used class of pesticides in the world, applied to eliminate target plants that compete with crops or to kill crop plants to facilitate harvesting. Impacts of herbicide use is not limited to plants but has various consequences for other non-target organisms including humans, overall biodiversity and ecosystem functions...

Nature reserves are one of the most important instruments for biodiversity protection and to limit regional species extinctions. However, these functions can only be fulfilled if environmental influences from the surroundings , such as agrochemical inputs do not negatively affect the protected habitats. Here, we compare the effectiveness of conserv...

The biocide Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) is applied to wetlands to control nuisance by mosquitoes. Amphibians inhabiting these wetlands can be exposed to Bti multiple times, potentially inducing oxidative stress in developing tadpoles. For biochemical stress responses, ambient water temperature plays a key role. Therefore, we expos...

SystemLink is an interdisciplinary research training group funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) involving multiple cohorts of international doctoral researchers closely cooperating at the iES Landau, Institute for Environmental Sciences, Germany. The goal of SystemLink is to investigate how anthropogenic stressors on aquatic ecosystems af...

Biodiversity is declining on a global scale. Especially tropical ecosystems, containing most of the planetary biodiversity, are at risk. Agricultural monocrop systems contribute to this decline as they replace original habitats and depend on extensive use of synthetic pesticides that impact ecosystems. In this review we use large-scale banana produ...

Emerging aquatic insects link aquatic and adjacent terrestrial food webs by subsidizing terrestrial predators with high-quality prey. One of the main constituents of aquatic subsidy, the non-biting midges (Chironomidae), showed altered emergence dynamics in response to the mosquito control agent Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti). As rip...

Emerging aquatic insects serve as one link between aquatic and adjacent riparian food webs via the flux of energy and nutrients. These insects provide high-quality subsidy to terrestrial predators. Thus, any disturbance of emergence processes may cascade to higher trophic levels and lead to effects across ecosystem boundaries. One stressor with pot...

In recent years, the decline of insect biodiversity and the imminent loss of provided ecosystem functions and services has received public attention and raised the demand for political action. The complex, multi-causal contributors to insect decline require a broad interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach that addresses ecological and social a...

Chironomid larvae often dominate aquatic macroinvertebrate communities and are a key food source for many aquatic predators, such as dragonfly and damselfly larvae (Odonata). Changes in aquatic macroinvertebrate communities may propagate through terrestrial food webs via altered insect emergence. Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti)-based larvi...

Ponds in agricultural landscapes are often used by amphibians as breeding habitat. However, the characteristics of agricultural ponds and especially the surrounding area are usually said to be suboptimal for many amphibian species. Using suboptimal habitats might allow a species' survival and reproduction, but can have negative consequences at the...

Pesticides are one of the main drivers of the worldwide amphibian decline. Their actual toxicity depends on a number of factors, like the species in focus or the developmental stage of exposed individuals. As ectothermic species, the metabolism of amphibians is influenced by ambient temperature. Therefore, temperature also affects metabolic rates a...

In Germany, the decline of insect biomass was observed in nature conservation areas in agricultural landscapes. One of the main causal factors discussed is the use of synthetic pesticides in conventional agriculture. In a Germany-wide field study, we collected flying insects using Malaise traps in nature conservation areas adjacent to agricultural...

Background Although debates about the assessment of potential effects of pesticides on amphibians are ongoing, amphibians are not yet considered in the current EU environmental risk assessment of pesticides. Instead, the risk assessment of potential effects on aquatic amphibian life stages relies on use of data of surrogate species like the standar...

In their response to our paper on harness- ing biodiversity-friendly landscapes [1], Brühl et al. [2] argue that we underestimate the benefits of banning synthetic pesti- cides in organic farming. We thank the authors for highlighting the importance of reducing pesticide applications for biodi- versity conservation, an assessment that we share [3–5...

Pesticides are one of the main drivers of the worldwide amphibian decline. Their actual toxicity depends on a number of factors, like the species in focus or the developmental stage of exposed individuals. As ectothermic species, the metabolism of amphibians is influenced by ambient temperature. Therefore, temperature also affects metabolic rates a...

Reversing the decline of biodiver-sity in European agricultural land-scapes is urgent. We suggest eightmeasures addressing politics, eco-nomics, and civil society to instigatetransformative changes in agricul-tural landscapes. We emphasizethe need for a well-informed societyand political measures promotingsustainable farming by combiningfood produc...

Insect declines and biodiversity loss have attracted much attention in recent years, but lack of comprehensive data, conflicting interests among stakeholders and insufficient policy guidance hinder progress in preserving biodiversity. The project DINA (Diversity of Insects in Nature protected Areas) investigates insect communities in 21 nature rese...

While pesticides are generally recognized as contributing to amphibian declines, there is a lack of knowledge about effects of co-formulants that are present in pesticide formulations and adjuvants which are mixed with these formulations. Since aquatic and terrestrial stages of amphibians can be exposed to these substances, adverse effects cannot b...

Biodiversity is under pressure worldwide, with amphibians being particularly threatened. Stressors related to human activity, such as chemicals, are contributing to this decline. It remains, however, unclear whether chemicals exhibiting a fungicidal activity could indirectly affect tadpoles that depend on microbially conditioned leaf litter as food...

Amphibian populations are declining worldwide at alarming rates. Among the large variety of contributing stressors, chemical pollutants like pesticides have been identified as a major factor for this decline. Besides direct effects on aquatic and terrestrial amphibian stages, sublethal effects like impairments in reproduction can affect a populatio...

Indirect effects of herbicides can have severe consequences on organisms and ecosystem functioning. Spray drift and erosion by wind and water distribute herbicides widely in noncrop areas, and effects on biodiversity and food web interactions trigger further ecosystem changes. An increasing body of evidence deals with herbicide effects on crop dise...

Direct impacts of herbicides on terrestrial nontarget organisms are manifold. Because of the great variety in modes of action, it is impossible to derive consistent response patterns. Effects can differ even within the same herbicide class. Most animal testing for regulatory purposes is done on laboratory mammals (mice, rats), birds (quail, ducks),...

Viticulture is one of the most pesticide‐intensive agricultures in Europe leading to a spatio‐temporal overlap of amphibian migration and pesticide applications. Since post‐metamorphic, terrestrial amphibian stages are mostly neglected in ecotoxicological studies, we investigated acute effects of viticultural fungicides on juvenile common frogs (Ra...

Chironomids have been proposed as important indicators for monitoring freshwater ecosystems, however, morphological determination is very challenging. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of metabarcoding for chironomid diversity assessment and tested the retrieved chironomid operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for possible changes in re...

Most agricultural soils are expected to be contaminated with agricultural chemicals. As the exposure to pesticides can have adverse effects on non-target organisms, avoiding contaminated areas would be advantageous on an individual level, but could lead to a chemical landscape fragmentation with disadvantages on the metapopulation level. We investi...

Pesticides have been identified as one of the major reasons for the worldwide decline of amphibian populations. In terms of aquatic amphibian exposure, most ecotoxicological studies concentrate on testing tadpoles in Gosner stage (GS) 25. To examine the representativeness of GS25, we exposed five aquatic stages of European common frogs (Rana tempor...

Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) has been used in mosquito control programs to reduce nuisance in Europe for decades and is generally considered an environmentally-safe, effective and target-specific biocide. However, the use of Bti is not uncontroversial. Target mosquitoes and affected midges represent an important food source for m...

Crop protection and biodiversity in agro-ecosystems The Scientific Advisory Board for the National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products (NAP) advises the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). The Board has provided its opinion on the impact of crop protection on biodiversity in agro-ecosystems. This pub...

Two important drivers of the global amphibian decline are habitat destruction due to an intensification of farming and a related increase of pesticide applications. Recent studies have shown that there might be an underestimated risk of pesticides on terrestrial amphibians. However, there are too few data on the terrestrial habitat use of amphibian...

Risk Management Instead of Assessment The development of a new systemic approach for ERA will take considerable time and require substantial resources. We therefore also need to discuss other options to at least halt the negative effects of pesticides on biodiversity of the agricultural landscape. Risk management to mitigate negative pesticide effe...

The biocide Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) has become the most commonly used larvicide to control mosquitoes in seasonal wetlands. Although Bti is considered non-toxic to most aquatic organisms, the non-biting chi-ronomids show high susceptibilities towards Bti. As chironomids are a key element in wetland food webs, major declines in thei...

Flower‐visiting insects (FVI) are an ecologically diverse group of mobile, flying species that should be protected from pesticide effects according to European policy. However, there is an ongoing decline of FVI species which is partly caused by agricultural pesticide applications. Therefore, the risk assessment framework needs to be improved. We s...

Bees provide essential ecosystem services and help maintain floral biodiversity. However, there is an ongoing decline of wild and domesticated bee species. Since agricultural pesticide use is a key driver of this process, there is a need for a protective risk assessment. To achieve a more protective registration process, two bee species, Osmia bico...

The Upper Rhine Valley, a Hotspot of Biodiversity in Germany, has been treated with the biocide Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) for mosquito control for decades. Previous studies discovered Bti non‐target effects in terms of severe chironomid abundance reductions. In this study, we investigated the impact of Bti on species level and a...

Pesticides are increasingly used worldwide and concurrently, evidence is mounting that they have detrimental ecological effects on the biodiversity of organisms in agricultural landscapes. However, pesticides are also perceived as a highly regulated group of chemicals in respect of their risk for the environment. The aim of this Research Topic, is...

The use of enzymatic biomarkers constitutes a widely used approach in ecotoxicology. However, standard sampling procedures are invasive, requiring tissue, organ or blood extraction. This leads to concerns regarding conservation practice, animal welfare and restrictions in study design. New techniques are needed to avoid these problems, but still ge...

Fungicides are indispensable to global food security and their use is forecasted to intensify. Fungicides can reach aquatic ecosystems and occur in surface water bodies in agricultural catchments throughout the whole growing season due to their frequent, prophylactic application. However, in comparison to herbicides and insecticides, the exposure t...

The ecological consequences of mosquito control using the larvicide Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) are still a matter of debate especially when it comes to adverse effects on non-target but susceptible non-biting midges (Chironomidae). Our work aimed to assess the effects of Bti applied in operational mosquito control rates on chironomid...

The Scientific Advisory Board of the National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products (NAP) advises the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). It has commented on the effects of plant protection on biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems. The decline in biodiversity in the agricultural landscape is striking. Butte...

Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes has severely declined in the past decades. Agricultural intensification and the application of plant protection products (PPP) have been discussed as main reasons of species loss. Setting off areas for compensation would be a means to mitigate biodiversity loss through PPP use. This study evaluates the potenc...

Report of the University of Koblenz-Landau on the results of the interdisciplinary project "AufLand", on impacts of running and standing water on the surrounding land. Editor: The President of the University of Koblenz-Landau. Topic editors: Susanne I. Schmidt, Carola Winkelmann, Claudia Eberhard-Metzger, Berend Barkela. The work was supported by t...

Bee species provide essential ecosystem services and maintain floral biodiversity. However, there is an ongoing decline of wild and domesticated bee species. Since agricultural pesticide use is a key driver of this process, there is a need for a protective risk assessment. To achieve a more protective registration process, two wild bee species, Osm...

Since its introduction in 1974, the use of glyphosate in agriculture has been continuously increasing; however, the application modes of this herbicide have been changing. Therefore, glyphosate-based herbicides can be used as an appropriate indicator for assessing how changes in pesticide application modes affect wild-living organisms in agricultur...

The biocide Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) is widely applied for mosquito control in temporary wetlands of the German Upper Rhine Valley. Even though Bti is considered environmentally friendly, several studies have shown non-target effects on chironomids, a key food resource in wetland ecosystems. Chironomids have been proposed as im...

Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) is presumed to be an environmental friendly agent for the use in either health-related mosquito control or the reduction of nuisance associated with mosquitoes from seasonal wetlands. Amphibians inhabiting these valuable wetlands may be exposed to Bti products several times during their breeding season....

Ecotoxicological amphibian studies concentrate on testing tadpoles in Gosner stage 25. Since effects on other larval stages as well as juveniles are often neglected, stage-dependent sensitivity differences cannot be excluded. The objectives of the study were to investigate the sensitivity of tadpoles and juveniles of the common frog Rana temporaria...

The loss of biodiversity is recognised on a global scale and also in the anthropogenic landscapes used for agriculture, now covering almost 50% of the global terrestrial land surface. In agriculture pesticides, biologically active chemicals are deliberately distributed to control pests, disease and weeds in the cropped areas. The quantification of...

Mosquito control based on the use of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) is regarded as an environmental friendly method. However, Bti also affects non-target chironomid midges that are recognized as a central resource in wetland food webs. To evaluate the risk for different larval stages of Chironomus riparius we performed a test series of da...

Although agriculture dominates much of Europe's landscape, there is virtually no information on foraging activity of bats in different crops. Additionally little is known about pesticide exposure of bats and related effects and there are currently no specific regulatory requirements to include bats in European Union pesticide risk assessments for t...