The pressure on the craton edge is showing at multiple weak points along its perimeter, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Yellowstone as well….. earthquake swarms occurring at the fracking operations, and dormant volcanic magma chambers.
In the midwest, at the fracking operation in Arkansas, there has been a period of relative “silence” across the whole of the state.
Today , June 4 2014, the silence was broken by a borderline 4.0M earthquake at a newer Arkansas fracking operation. Also at the location, a possible old dormant volcanic core (sugarloaf mountain).
Overall, the plate is in a state of flux due to greater Pacific movement. The Pacific plate is causing unrest to “spill over” normal subduction zones (like the West Coast US) , causing pressure to be placed on the relatively stable unsubducted craton (plate). The edge of the plate is being moved by the pressure coming from the NW.
Here are the past 7 days of 4.0M+ earthquakes in the West Pacific, clearly heavy unrest taking place , spilling across the edges of the Pacific plate in all adjacent areas.
Update May 29 13:19 UTC : Local reports are mentioning houses with cracks in Salva León de Higuey
Update 22:24 UTC : List of the most recent earthquakes closest to today’s epicenter. Interesting to see is that almost all of these earthquakes are very deep, this due to the movement of the Oceanic plate towards the south (she dives below the Caribbean plate). The tectonics of this Caribbean area are very complex with a number of sub-plates as well as dangerous transform faults, like the one who generated the cruel Haiti earthquake. Transform faults are resulting in a mainly horizontal movement which can generate a lot of damage to not properly build houses.
Update 22:24 UTC : Below the seismogram of this earthquake as recorded in Presa de Sabenta, Dominican Republic
Update 21:57 UTC : The main reason why this earthquake was felt in such a wide radius (Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic) is the depth of the hypocenter or breaking point. Although the radius is very wide, the concentrated shaking at the epicenter is luckily also a lot weaker. When this earthquake would have been shallower the risk on serious damage would have been a lot bigger.
Update 21:46 UTC : USGS has increased the Magnitude again to M5.8 at the same depth. Below the shaking intensities for the most important cities close to the epicenter.
Update 21:39 UTC : USGS has recalculated the Magnitude and has set it now to M5.7 at a depth of 91 km. USGS projects a max. Moderate shaking in the eastern part of the Dominican Republic and a weak shaking in Puerto Rico.
Update 21:35 UTC : The earthquake will surely NOT generate a tsunami.
Update 21:32 UTC : The preliminary earthquake Magnitude values are in between 5.3 and 5.8 at a depth of 100 km. This means that there is only a limited chance on serious damage. The deeper the hypocenter is, the less chance on damage.
Update : Below the Focal Mechanism or Beach Ball of this earthquake. It shows a clear compression
31km (19mi) ESE of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic
37km (23mi) S of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
55km (34mi) SE of Salvaleon de Higuey, Dominican Republic
68km (42mi) ESE of La Romana, Dominican Republic
175km (109mi) E of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Update 23:10 UTC : Below a revised list of shaking intensity in the nearest cities. The MMI IV (light shaking) in Bhubaneshwar explains in part why so many people were injured.
Update 19:29 UTC : New reports are talking about 50 injured and 1 older man killed in Bhuaneshwar. So fat all injuries are said to have occurred due to panic (mainly storming out of buildings). We are still unsure about the reason of the death of the old man. (source : mbctv.co.in)
Update 19:28 UTC : Residents in some places of Odisha and Tamil Nadu moved out of their houses as soon as the quake struck and a few buildings developed cracks in Bhubaneshwar where a dozen people were injured in a rush to move out of multi-storeyed buildings.
Update 18:36 UTC : Residents of Punama Gate locality in Old Town area of Bhuaneshwar said cracks had appeared on the walls of some buildings and kitchen utensils fell off the racks. A report from Cuttack said electricity supply was snapped for about 15 minutes in some areas of the city after the tremor. Panic gripped several parts of Odisha’s Kendrapara district where residents felt the tremors for about 10 seconds. (source : indianexpress.com)
Update 17:50 UTC : So far we counted that at least 14 India States felt the earthquake. We have even received Felt Reports from Nepal!
Update : Below the Focal Mechanism or Beach Ball of this earthquake who is showing a mainly horizontal displacement (tsunami excluded). “Understanding Beach Balls” article
Update 16:45 UTC : The earthquake was also felt in neighboring Bangladesh.
Update 16:34 UTC : Epicenter at least 200 km out of the coast – NO Tsunami danger at this Magnitude but strong currents at the beaches may occur
469 km S of Calcutta, India / pop: 4,631,392 / local time: 21:51:54.2 2014-05-21
314 km SE of Bhubaneshwar, India / pop: 762,243 / local time: 21:51:54.2 2014-05-21
266 km SE of Parādīp Garh, India / pop: 85,868 / local time: 21:51:54.2 2014-05-21
May 19, 2014: Every ten days, the NASA/French Space Agency Jason-2 satellite maps all the world’s oceans, monitoring changes in sea surface height, a measure of heat in the upper layers of the water. Because our planet is more than 70% ocean, this information is crucial to global forecasts of weather and climate.
Lately, Jason-2 has seen something brewing in the Pacific—and it looks a lot like 1997.
“A pattern of sea surface heights and temperatures has formed that reminds me of the way the Pacific looked in the spring of 1997,” says Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “That turned out to be the precursor of a big El Niño.”
A new ScienceCast video examines the evidence that an El Niño is developing in the Pacific. Play it
“We can’t yet say for sure that an El Niño will develop in 2014, or how big it might be,” cautions Mike McPhaden of NOAA’s Pacific Environmental Research Laboratories in Seattle, “but the Jason-2 data support the El Niño Watch issued last month by NOAA.”
What Jason-2 has been seeing is a series of “Kelvin waves”—massive ripples in sea level that travel across the Pacific from Australia to South America. Forecasters are paying close attention because these waves could be a herald of El Niño.
The two phenomena, Kelvin waves and El Niño, are linked by wind. Pacific trade winds blow from east to west, pushing sun-warmed surface waters toward Indonesia. As a result, the sea level near Indonesia is normally 45 cm higher than it is near Ecuador. Researchers call that area the “warm pool”—it is the largest reservoir of warm water on our planet.
Sometimes, however, trade winds falter for a few days or weeks, and some of that excess sea level ripples back toward the Americas. “That’s a Kelvin wave,” says McPhaden. “It’s not unusual to see a couple every winter.”
El Niño happens when trade winds falter not just for days, but for many months. Then Kelvin waves cross the Pacific like a caravan, raising sea level and leaving warmer equatorial waters in their wake.
On May 8th, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction forecasted a 65% chance of El Niño developing during the summer of 2014. More
“The El Niño of 1997/98 was a textbook example,” recalls Patzert. “At that time we were getting data from TOPEX/Poseidon, a predecessor of Jason-2. Sea surface maps showed a whitish bump, indicating a sea level some 10 centimeters higher than usual, moving along the equator from Australia to South America.”
“The same pattern is repeating in 2014,” says McPhaden. “A series of Kelvin waves generated by localized west wind bursts in the western Pacific that began in mid-January 2014 are headed east. Excitement is building as a third weakening of the Pacific trade winds happened in mid-April.”
Ocean and atmospheric scientists at NOAA and NASA are carefully monitoring the Pacific trade winds. The tipping point for declaring a significant El Niño will be an even longer lasting, larger collapse in Pacific trade winds, possibly signaling a shift in weather all around our planet.
“It will become much clearer over the next two to three months whether these recent developments are the forerunner of a major El Niño—or any El Niño at all,” says McPhaden.
Contrary to the common belief that the Earth is simply a dense planet whose only function is a resource for its inhabitants, our planet is in fact a breathing, living organism. When we think of the Earth holistically, as one living entity of its own, instead of the sum of its parts, it takes on a new meaning. Our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival.
James Lovelock published in a book in 1979 providing many useful lessons about the interaction of physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes on Earth.
Throughout history, the concept of Mother Earth has been a part of human culture in one form or another. Everybody has heard of Mother Earth, but have you ever stopped to think who (or what) Mother Earth is?
What is Gaia?
Lovelock defined Gaia as “…a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.”
Through Gaia, the Earth sustains a kind of homeostasis, the maintenance of relatively constant conditions.
The truly startling component of the Gaia hypothesis is the idea that the Earth is a single living entity. This idea is certainly not new. James Hutton (1726-1797), the father of geology, once described the Earth as a kind of superorganism. And right before Lovelock, Lewis Thomas, a medical doctor and skilled writer, penned these words in his famous collection of essays, The Lives of a Cell:
“Viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive. The photographs show the dry, pounded surface of the moon in the foreground, dry as an old bone. Aloft, floating free beneath the moist, gleaming, membrane of bright blue sky, is the rising earth, the only exuberant thing in this part of the cosmos. If you could look long enough, you would see the swirling of the great drifts of white cloud, covering and uncovering the half-hidden masses of land. If you had been looking for a very long, geologic time, you could have seen the continents themselves in motion, drifting apart on their crustal plates, held afloat by the fire beneath. It has the organized, self-contained look of a live creature, full of information, marvelously skilled in handling the sun.”
John Nelson illustrated the “Breathing Earth,” (below) which are two animated GIFs he designed to visualize what a year’s worth of Earth’s seasonal transformations look like from outer space. Nelson–a data visualizer, stitched together from NASA’s website 12 cloud-free satellite photographs taken each month over the course of a year. Once the images were put together in a sequence, the mesmerizing animations showed what Nelson describes as “the annual pulse of vegetation and land ice.”
As the climate changes, the planet comes alive. Earth appears to breathe when ice cover grows and melts–in and out, in and out.
White frost radiates out from the top of the globe and creeps south in all directions. It travels through Siberia, Canada, and northern Europe, heading towards the equator located around the circle’s edge, but ends before the top of Africa. The Mediterranean Sea is the visible body of water on the top left hand side, and the Great Lakes make up a small network of dark blue shapes on the land mass to the right.
The Earth acts as a single system – it is a coherent, self-regulated, assemblage of physical, chemical, geological, and biological forces that interact to maintain a unified whole balanced between the input of energy from the sun and the thermal sink of energy into space.
In its most basic configuration, the Earth acts to regulate flows of energy and recycling of materials. The input of energy from the sun occurs at a constant rate and for all practical purposes is unlimited. This energy is captured by the Earth as heat or photosynthetic processes, and returned to space as long-wave radiation. On the other hand, the mass of the Earth, its material possessions, are limited (except for the occasional input of mass provided as meteors strike the planet). Thus, while energy flows through the Earth (sun to Earth to space), matter cycles within the Earth.
The idea of the Earth acting as a single system as put forth in the Gaia hypothesis has stimulated a new awareness of the connectedness of all things on our planet and the impact that man has on global processes. No longer can we think of separate components or parts of the Earth as distinct. No longer can we think of man’s actions in one part of the planet as independent. Everything that happens on the planet – the deforestation/reforestation of trees, the increase/decrease of emissions of carbon dioxide, the removal or planting of croplands – all have an affect on our planet. The most difficult part of this idea is how to qualify these effects, i.e. to determine whether these effects are positive or negative. If the Earth is indeed self-regulating, then it will adjust to the impacts of man. However, as we will see, these adjustments may act to exclude man, much as the introduction of oxygen into the atmosphere by photosynthetic bacteria acted to exclude anaerobic bacteria. This is the crux of the Gaia hypothesis.
One of the early predictions of this hypothesis was that there should be a sulfur compound made by organisms in the oceans that was stable enough against oxidation in water to allow its transfer to the air. Either the sulfur compound itself, or its atmospheric oxidation product, would have to return sulfur from the sea to the land surfaces. The most likely candidate for this role was deemed to be dimethyl sulfide.
Published work done at the University of Maryland by first author Harry Oduro, together with UMD geochemist James Farquhar and marine biologist Kathryn Van Alstyne of Western Washington University, provides a tool for tracing and measuring the movement of sulfur through ocean organisms, the atmosphere and the land in ways that may help prove or disprove the controversial Gaia theory. Their study appears in this week’s Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The Story of Water by Alick Bartholomew, is another unique publication in that it reflects the author’s deep knowledge of the principles of whole geophysical systems, which helps us understand the Earth as an integrated Gaia system that sustains us. The book begins by describing our usual view of water based on Western science and then deftly moves on to the frontier sciences that embrace water as the source of life in terms of biological systems, quantum energy fields, etheric fields, spirals, vortices, and as a medium for communications and memory. An understanding of these principles can lead to strategies for treating our water in ways that guarantee a sustainable future for humankind.
How Does Gaia Work?
The homeostasis regulated by the Earth is much like the internal maintenance of our own bodies; processes within our body insure a constant temperature, blood pH, electrochemical balance, etc. The inner workings of Gaia, therefore, can be viewed as a study of the physiology of the Earth, where the oceans and rivers are the Earth’s blood, the atmosphere is the Earth’s lungs, the land is the Earth’s bones, and the living organisms are the Earth’s senses. Lovelock calls this the science of geophysiology – the physiology of the Earth (or any other planet).
To understand how the Earth is living, let’s take a look at what defines life. Physicists define life as a system of locally reduced entropy (life is the battle against entropy). Molecular biologists view life as replicating strands of DNA that compete for survival and evolve to optimize their survival in changing surroundings. Physiologists might view life as a biochemical system that us able to use energy from external sources to grow and reproduce. According to Lovelock, the geophysiologist sees life as a system open to the flux of matter and energy but that maintains an internal steady-state.
Beyond the scientific importance of what we have discussed here, we might do well to consider some of the more poetical thoughts of the originator of the theory:
“If Gaia exists, the relationship between her and man, a dominant animal species in the complex living system, and the possibly shifting balance of power between them, are questions of obvious importance… The Gaia hypothesis is for those who like to walk or simply stand and stare, to wonder about the Earth and the life it bears, and to speculate about the consequences of our own presence here. It is an alternative to that pessimistic view which sees nature as a primitive force to be subdued and conquered. It is also an alternative to that equally depressing picture of our planet as a demented spaceship, forever traveling, driverless and purposeless, around an inner circle of the sun.”
The strong Gaia hypothesis states that life creates conditions on Earth to suit itself. Life created the planet Earth, not the other way around. As we explore the solar system and galaxies beyond, it may one day be possible to design an experiment to test whether life indeed manipulates planetary processes for its own purposes or whether life is just an evolutionary processes that occurs in response to changes in the non-living world.
About the Author
Liz Bentley is a graduate in geology, professional photographer and freelance journalist with an acute insight into fossil records and climatology.
Record May heat sent temperatures soaring above 100° in much of Southern California on Wednesday, and fierce Santa Ana winds fanned fires that scorched at least 9,000 acres in San Diego County, forcing thousands to evacuate. For the second consecutive day, the Los Angeles Airport set a record for the hottest May temperature since record keeping began in 1944. Wednesday’s 96° beat the record set on Tuesday of 93°. Other all-time May record heat was recorded at Camarillo (102°) and Oxnard (102°) on Wednesday. In Downtown Los Angeles, the mercury hit 99° on Wednesday, falling short of the all-time May record is 103° set on May 25, 1896. More record heat is forecast on Thursday, and hot offshore Santa Ana winds will bring extreme fire danger.
Figure 1. A firenado in Fallbrook, California at old Highway 395 and Interstate 15 on May 14, 2014. Image credit: Jena Rents via Twitter.
Figure 2. True-color MODIS satellite image of fires burning in Southern California and Northern Mexico on Wednesday afternoon, May 14, 2014. Image credit: NASA.
100% of California in severe to exceptional drought
Today’s U.S. Drought Monitor report showed grim news for California: 100% of the state is now in severe or higher drought, up from 96% the previous week. Though just 25% of California is classified as being in the highest level of drought, “Exceptional”, Erin McCarthy at the Wall Street Journal estimates that farms comprising 53% of California’s $44.7 billion market value lie in the Exceptional drought area. Averaged state-wide, the Palmer Drought Severity Index during April 2014 was the second worst on record, behind 1977. For the 12-month period ending in April, drought conditions in California for 2013 – 2014 were also the second most severe on record, slightly below the 2008 – 2009 drought. To break the drought, most of the state needs 9 – 15″ or precipitation to fall in one month. This amounts to more than a half-year’s worth of precipitation for most of the state.
Figure 3. The May 13, 2014 U.S. Drought Monitor showed 100% of California in severe or higher drought, with 25% of the state in the highest level of drought, “Exceptional.” Image credit: U.S. Drought Monitor.
California’s rainy season is over
The California October through April rainy season is now over. Between October 2013 and April 2014, the state received 10.44″ of precipitation, which is just 51% of average for the period, and the third lowest such total on record. Going back to 1895, the record low mark was set in 1976 – 1977, when the state got just 34% of its average rainy season precipitation. California typically receives less than 10% of its annual precipitation between May and September, and the coming hot and dry summer in combination with a severely depleted Sierra snowpack will cause a severe fire season and significant agricultural damages. The fifth and final snow survey of the season on May 1 found that the statewide snowpack’s water content–which normally provides about a third of the water for California’s farms and cities–was only 18% of average for the date. Already, the 2014 drought has cost the state at least $3.6 billion in agricultural damages, the California Farm Water Coalition estimates. CAL FIRE recently announced it had hired 125 additional firefighters to help address the increased fire threat due to drought conditions.
Update 00:13 UTC : In 1923 a M7.9 earthquake struck at a depth of 35 km to the south west of the current epicenter. This earthquake killed 142,000 people. In other words this is a highly dangerous area.
Update 00:07 UTC : The hypocenter depth can be called normal as the heavier Oceanic Pacific plate dives below Honshu, Japan (see image below).
Update 00:01 UTC : Question from ER for the people living in Tokyo who have felt the earthquake and having a Earthquake Warning App or alert – How much time was there in between the alert and the shaking? Thanks for replying with the form below.
Update 23:51 UTC : JMA Japan reports a Magnitude of M4.9 at a depth of 80 km. Max. shaking intensity is JMA 4
JMA 4 means : * Most people are startled.
* Hanging objects such as lamps swing significantly.
* Unstable ornaments may fall.
Based on all these data we can conclude that this earthquake will be harmless.
The earthquake happened at 08:35 local time.
Update : Harmless earthquake but this time very close to Tokyo. This is already the second earthquake in only a couple of weeks. This one was even closer to the city. The intermediate depth makes that the the earthquake will have been felt all over the greater Tokyo, Yokohama area.
6km (4mi) ESE of Ichihara, Japan
12km (7mi) S of Chiba-shi, Japan
15km (9mi) WNW of Mobara, Japan
15km (9mi) W of Oami, Japan
46km (29mi) ESE of Tokyo, Japan
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.1
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2014-05-13 08:35:03
Panama TV is reporting that many walls collapsed in the Western Part of the country. Additionally, a water pipe broke in San Cristobal which set a number of houses inundated. In Chiriqui the facade from the National Bank of Panama was damaged.
The area felt many aftershocks so far.
Update 07:04 UTC : The map below shows the location of the epicenter in function of the (complicated) tectonics of that area – The Yellow line is the Convergent fault or the subduction zone where the Oceanic Cocos Plate dives below the Caribbean Plate. The Blue line the transform zone with a mainly horizontal movement.
Update 07:01 UTC : The seismogram of this earthquake
Update 06:54 UTC : Below the theoretical shakemap based on the USGS data (other agencies are showing a M6.4 Magnitude)
Update 06:47 UTC : It is currently the middle of the night in Central America. Based on the shaking numbers we are receiving from our readers (in back office) people are confirming what we expected from the beginning : Mex. a light shaking.
Update 06:44 UTC : ER does not expect serious damage from this earthquake – Main reason : Distance to the coast
Update 06:43 UTC : NO tsunami risk following the report of the PTWC (locally strong currents and minor waves are always possible)
126km (78mi) SSE of Punta de Burica, Panama
152km (94mi) SSE of Puerto Armuelles, Panama
153km (95mi) S of Pedregal, Panama
160km (99mi) S of David, Panama
373km (232mi) SSE of San Jose, Costa Ric
Government Begins Emergency Water Rationing In Venezuela Amid Drought
| by JORGE RUEDA
Posted:
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — In deeply polarized Venezuela even the rain can set off political fighting.
As the country’s dry season extends longer than normal, the water level at one of the three reservoirs ringing Caracas has fallen to near record lows. That prompted authorities on Wednesday to begin implementing a rationing plan that will leave some of the capital’s 6 million people without water for as many as three days a week.
The government said the emergency plan is needed to confront a severe drought. They don’t expect water at the Lagartijo reservoir to return to normal levels until August or September.
But opponents of the socialist government said President Nicolas Maduro and not mother nature is to blame.
Carlos Ocariz, mayor of the capital’s Sucre district, said there hasn’t been a single reservoir built during 15 years of socialist rule. Instead of waiting for storage ponds to dry, the government should have implemented a less burdensome, water-saving plan months ago, he said.
“We didn’t have to wait for things to reach this point to begin taking action,” Ocariz said in a statement.
Water shortages are nothing new in Venezuela, especially in poorer neighborhoods that lack proper urban planning. During the last extended drought, in 2009, water levels at many hydroelectric power generators also fell to critical levels, triggering blackouts across the country.
While nobody is predicting such a severe crisis this time, the squabbling isn’t likely to abate. For months, opponents of Maduro have been on the streets protesting against everything from galloping inflation to rampant crime.
Still, as the rationing plan took effect Wednesday, there was one development that both sides could welcome: a late-afternoon shower.
Two widely used neonicotinoids—a class of insecticide—appear to significantly harm honey bee colonies over the winter, particularly during colder winters, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study replicated a 2012 finding from the same research group that found a link between low doses of imidacloprid and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which bees abandon their hives over the winter and eventually die. The new study also found that low doses of a second neonicotinoid, clothianidin, had the same negative effect.
Further, although other studies have suggested that CCD-related mortality in honey bee colonies may come from bees’ reduced resistance to mites or parasites as a result of exposure to pesticides, the new study found that bees in the hives exhibiting CCD had almost identical levels of pathogen infestation as a group of control hives, most of which survived the winter. This finding suggests that the neonicotinoids are causing some other kind of biological mechanism in bees that in turn leads to CCD.
The study appears online May 9, 2014 in the Bulletin of Insectology (link at bottom).
“We demonstrated again in this study that neonicotinoids are highly likely to be responsible for triggering CCD in honey bee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter,” said lead author Chensheng (Alex) Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology at HSPH.
Since 2006, there have been significant losses of honey bees from CCD. Pinpointing the cause is crucial to mitigating this problem since bees are prime pollinators of roughly one-third of all crops worldwide. Experts have considered a number of possible causes, including pathogen infestation, beekeeping practices, and pesticide exposure. Recent findings, including a 2012 study by Lu and colleagues, suggest that CCD is related specifically to neonicotinoids, which may impair bees’ neurological functions. Imidacloprid and clothianidin both belong to this group.Lu and his co-authors from the Worcester County Beekeepers Association studied the health of 18 bee colonies in three locations in central Massachusetts from October 2012 through April 2013. At each location, the researchers separated six colonies into three groups—one treated with imidacloprid, one with clothianidin, and one untreated.
There was a steady decline in the size of all the bee colonies through the beginning of winter—typical among hives during the colder months in New England. Beginning in January 2013, bee populations in the control colonies began to increase as expected, but populations in the neonicotinoid-treated hives continued to decline. By April 2013, 6 out of 12 of the neonicotinoid-treated colonies were lost, with abandoned hives that are typical of CCD. Only one of the control colonies was lost—thousands of dead bees were found inside the hive—with what appeared to be symptoms of a common intestinal parasite called Nosema ceranae.
While the 12 pesticide-treated hives in the current study experienced a 50% CCD mortality rate, the authors noted that, in their 2012 study, bees in pesticide-treated hives had a much higher CCD mortality rate—94%. That earlier bee die-off occurred during the particularly cold and prolonged winter of 2010-2011 in central Massachusetts, leading the authors to speculate that colder temperatures, in combination with neonicotinoids, may play a role in the severity of CCD.
“Although we have demonstrated the validity of the association between neonicotinoids and CCD in this study, future research could help elucidate the biological mechanism that is responsible for linking sub-lethal neonicotinoid exposures to CCD,” said Lu. “Hopefully we can reverse the continuing trend of honey bee loss.” “Sub-lethal exposure to neonicotinoids impaired honey bees winterization before proceeding to colony collapse disorder,” Chensheng Lu, Kenneth M. Warchol, Richard A. Callahan, Bulletin of Insectology, online Friday, May 9, 2014. Press release source.
