Paper · 2025 · Environmental Research Food Systems

Pesticides but not microplastics affect pollination in rape seed production in China

Wei Lin; Xueqing He; Jilan Hu; et al.

4
claims
8
verbatim quotes
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citations
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research areas
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Open access · cc-by

Abstract

Abstract Humanity depends on agriculture for food, fiber and energy provisioning, but input-intensive agricultural production is impacting ecosystem services such as pollination. Pollution effects from neonicotinoid insecticides on pollinators receive much attention, but nothing is known on the synergistic effects with emerging plastic contaminants and the mitigation potential of agricultural diversification. Here, we conduct the first full-factorial mesocosm study to understand two-generation effects of diversified floral resources (diversification treatment), and neonicotinoid and microplastic pollution (pollution treatments) on Osmia cornifrons bees in 72 mesocosms. In a three-year experiment, we found that diversification can mitigate negative neonicotinoid effects. We did not find any individual or synergistic effects of realistic exposure levels of microplastic on reproductive performance of solitary bees. None of our treatments detectably affected rapeseed yield. Diversified flower resources in Chinese agricultural landscapes to mitigate pesticide pollution effects on pollinators is an important policy argument for pollinator protection with downstream implications for food security.

Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗

The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.

Claims 4

Intervention effectobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Diversified floral resources mitigated negative neonicotinoid effects on Osmia cornifrons bees.

Taxon
rape seedBrassica napust0
Treatment
diversificatione2
Interactor
Osmia cornifronsOsmia cornifronse1pollinator
Outcome
negative neonicotinoid effectse2
Direction
mitigatee2

Not reportedComparator

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Brassica napus
Brassica napus · TaxonDidier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Osmia cornifrons
Osmia cornifrons · InteractorBeatriz Moisset · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“rape seed production”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 55–75 · show in text ↑
e1

“on Osmia cornifrons bees in 72 mesocosms”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 636–676 · show in text ↑
e2

“we found that diversification can mitigate negative neonicotinoid effects”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 706–779 · show in text ↑
Intervention effectobservedoriginal resultno effectnot significant (as stated)measured

Claim · model-written summary

Realistic exposure levels of microplastic had no individual or synergistic effect on reproductive performance of solitary bees.

Taxon
rape seedBrassica napust0
Treatment
microplastice3
Interactor
solitary beese3pollinator
Outcome
reproductive performancee3

Not reportedComparatorDirection

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Brassica napus
Brassica napus · TaxonDidier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“rape seed production”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 55–75 · show in text ↑
e3

“We did not find any individual or synergistic effects of realistic exposure levels of microplastic on reproductive performance of solitary bees”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 781–924 · show in text ↑
Intervention effectobservedoriginal resultno effectnot significant (as stated)measured

Claim · model-written summary

None of the treatments detectably affected rapeseed yield.

Taxon
rapeseede4
Treatment
our treatmentse4
Outcome
rapeseed yielde4

Not reportedComparatorDirection

Verbatim

e4

“None of our treatments detectably affected rapeseed yield”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 926–983 · show in text ↑
Recommendationauthor interpretationoriginal resultbasis n/a

Claim · model-written summary

Diversified flower resources in Chinese agricultural landscapes are an important policy argument for pollinator protection.

Taxon
rape seedBrassica napust0
Outcome
pollinator protectione5

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Brassica napus
Brassica napus · TaxonDidier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“rape seed production”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 55–75 · show in text ↑
e5

“Diversified flower resources in Chinese agricultural landscapes to mitigate pesticide pollution effects on pollinators is an important policy argument for pollinator protection”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 985–1161 · show in text ↑

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