[Mitarbeiter.zoologie] Antw: Positive Correlation between Pesticide Consumption and Longevity in Solitary Bees

[Julia Osterman]

Also, last year a paper came out from the same group (at least Peter
Neumann is also on), with again a maybe misleading title: "A short note on
extreme sex ratio in solitary bees *Osmia cornuta* in semi-field trials
testing the impact of neonicotinoids". In that paper they found that way
more male offspring were "produced" than females, but regardless of the
treatment, which might be just because they used too small tents so that
the females did not have enough food resources. See attached.
Julia

Am Mi., 25. Nov. 2020 um 08:17 Uhr schrieb Julia Osterman <
jul.osterman at gmail.com>:

> Dear all, Hi Ecki,
> I was reading the article this morning and I must say, I am quite upset.
> But, I think first of all their statistical analysis looks to me robust and
> they exclude "non-feeders", so that should be fine.
>
> However, their title, their abstract, and their conclusions from what they
> find are to me misleading. Especially in Corona times, we as researchers
> should have realised how important it is to clearly communicate our
> findings, as many journalists are not trained to be able to correctly
> interpret papers. Anyway, my critics are the following and I almost think
> we should write a response letter.
>
> Their findings are*: NO differences* between treatment groups on
> survival. This means the insecticide nor the herbicide nor the combination
> reduced survival compared to the control group. As a consequence, I would
> have chosen a title representing this result, as to me it seems like that
> was the reason to make this study.
>
> They also find no difference between treatment groups on how much the bees
> have eaten BUT they find that *body size *affected how much the mason
> bees ate: "*however, emergence mass had a significant positive effect on
> consumption with heavier bees consuming more sucrose-solution*". This
> means those bees that were bigger ate more. And then they tested if
> consumption affected longevity and in all groups, they find a positive
> correlation between consumption and longevity. IN ALL. No difference
> between treatment groups again. To me, this means either bees that eat a
> lot survive longer or those that are bigger survive longer, no matter if
> they got a pesticide or not. But in the abstract, the authors write: "*As
> no significant difference in daily food consumption were observed across
> treatment groups, increasing food intake can be excluded as a factor
> leading to prolonged survival.*" This is just against my logic but maybe
> I am wrong.
>
> Also, they write in the simple abstract that their data suggests a
> possibly neglected trade-off between survival and reproduction in insect
> toxicology. I don't see how they came up with this?
>
> Maybe I am wrong, but this paper is a good example of miss-interpretations
> of results.
>
> What do you think?
> Thanks, Andreia for sending it around!
> Julia
>
> Am Di., 24. Nov. 2020 um 19:30 Uhr schrieb Eckart Stolle <
> eckart.stolle at zoologie.uni-halle.de>:
>
>> looks like a nice paper for the connaisseurs of statistical fishing.
>>
>>
>> Probably any cloud of datapoints would give them a positive correlation
>> if they still include the bunch of non-eating weird ones.
>>
>> ... the headlines will be: "See! Whats we [Bayer] say? Pesticide are
>> even good for bees!"
>>
>>
>>
>> ================================
>> Dr. Eckart Stolle
>> Institut für Biology
>> Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
>> Hoher Weg 8, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany
>> eckart.stolle at zoologie.uni-halle.de
>> 0049 345 55 26502
>> Fax 0049 345 55 27428
>> ================================
>> >>> Andreia Teixeira <andreia.teixeira90 at gmail.com> 24.11.20 12.24 Uhr
>> >>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> The paper attached may be of interest, probably some of you have seen it
>> already.
>>
>> Best,
>> Andreia
>> --
>>
>> PhD Student
>> Martin-Luther University
>> Institute of Biology
>> General Zoology Group
>>
>> Hoher Weg 8, 06120 Halle, Germany
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Mitarbeiter.zoologie mailing list
>> Mitarbeiter.zoologie at lists.uni-halle.de
>> https://lists.uni-halle.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mitarbeiter.zoologie
>>
>
>
> --
> Julia Osterman
> PhD candidate
> General Zoology
> Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
> jul.osterman at gmail.com
>
> Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ
> Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
> julia.osterman at ufz.de <julia.goss at ufz.de>
>


-- 
Julia Osterman
PhD candidate
General Zoology
Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
jul.osterman at gmail.com

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ
Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
julia.osterman at ufz.de <julia.goss at ufz.de>
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