Pesticide and herbicide contamination refers to the presence and persistence of synthetic or natural plant protection chemicals and their transformation products in environmental compartments such as soil, surface water, groundwater, sediments, air, and biota. Research on this topic examines sources (agricultural runoff, spray drift, leaching, improper disposal), transport and fate processes (sorption–desorption, volatilization, photolysis, hydrolysis, biodegradation), and bioaccumulation and biomagnification in food webs. It also encompasses mixture toxicity, sublethal and chronic effects on non-target organisms, development of resistance, and the use of monitoring, risk assessment frameworks, and remediation or mitigation strategies to manage and reduce ecological and human health risks.
You may be spotting dead bumblebees lying on pavements near you during the summer months. There are several reasons for this, some related to the weather and some very much due to humans.
Plants & Animals
Jul 10, 2026
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233
Facing both climate change and a crashing pollinator population, plants may be evolving to attract pollinators rather than adapting to a warming climate, and the trade-off has resulted in a steep decline in plants' rate of ...
Evolution
Jul 9, 2026
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358
Efforts to manage invasive alien plant species in forests could be held back by a continued reliance on chemical methods, according to a new study. Research led by Lizzie Keen, a postgraduate researcher at Newcastle University's ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2026
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7
Worker bees are the first line of defense when it comes to removing contamination in honeybee colonies, but a queen has her ways, too. A honeybee queen facing chronic exposure to pesticides will take up that contamination ...
Ecology
Jul 2, 2026
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77
The ability of bacteria to remove pollutants from soil, water, mine waste and other environments could be supercharged by a "friendly" compatible virus, according to a study led by Flinders University. The new insights, published ...
Ecology
Jun 30, 2026
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9
Regenerative agriculture can deliver both economic and environmental benefits for European farmers, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) concludes in the research project Regenomics. Whether these benefits are actually ...
Agriculture
Jun 25, 2026
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40
Eight in 10 adults in the French West Indies have a toxic pesticide in their blood decades after banana growers stopped using it, a study said Wednesday.
Environment
Jun 24, 2026
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10
It is illegal to use paraquat in at least 74 jurisdictions worldwide, including the European Union, China, Malaysia, Brazil and, most recently, the U.S. state of Vermont.
Agriculture
Jun 23, 2026
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11
Bumblebees are only an inch long, but they help power the global food system. Roughly one-third of the food we grow depends on pollinators like bees—and those bees are regularly decimated by pesticides.
Ecology
Jun 23, 2026
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18
The European Commission has presented a new legislative package. It is intended to reform key provisions that have hitherto governed the approval of pesticides. The "Food and Feed Safety simplification package" is part of ...
Ecology
Jun 22, 2026
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10
