9 June
2006 - The National Monitoring Programme for the
Aquatic and Terrestrial Environments (NOVANA)
replaced the former solely aquatic monitoring
programme NOVA-2003 on January 1st 2004. With
NOVANA, Denmark initiated integrated systematic
monitoring of the aquatic and terrestrial nature
and environments.
The report "Aquatic and
Terrestrial Environment 2004. State and trends
– technical summary" present state and trends
of the environment based on the results from NOVANA
in 2004.
Spraying fields means fewer
berries in hedgerows
7 June 2006 - New NERI studies
show that wind drift of the commonly-used weed
killer metsulfuron can prevent bushes in hedgerows
and woodlines from producing berries. This means
there is less winter food for berry-eating birds
such as the blackbird and fieldfare.
Many modern pesticides are so
effective that only a few grammes are used per
hectare. Four grammes per hectare of the weed
killer metsulfuron are enough to kill small dicotyledonous
plants on cornfields. However, not only the weeds
on arable fields are damaged by spraying. New
studies by NERI show that wind drift of these
miniscule amounts of metsulfuron are enough to
inhibit growth of berries on hawthorns, black
elder and Swedish white beam nearby. Similar effects
have previously been found by foreign studies
on bird cherry. As the effect has now been demonstrated
for four tree species, it is likely that it will
also apply more generally.
