ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2012
Historical pesticide applications coincided with an altered diet of aerially foraging insectivorous chimney swifts.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Combining radio-telemetry and radar measurements to test optimal foraging in an aerial insectivore bird.eLife · 2025Article
- Social foraging and the associated benefits of group-living in Cliff Swallows decrease over 40 years.Ecological monographs · 2024Article
- A 2200-year record of Andean Condor diet and nest site usage reflects natural and anthropogenic stressors.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Interacting effects of cold snaps, rain, and agriculture on the fledging success of a declining aerial insectivore.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2022Article
- Colour-assisted variation in elytral ICP-OES-based ionomics in an aposematic beetle.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Are insects declining and at what rate? An analysis of standardised, systematic catches of aphid and moth abundances across Great Britain.Insect conservation and diversity · 2020Article
- Quantifying rapidly declining abundance of insects in Europe using a paired experimental design.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Parallel declines in abundance of insects and insectivorous birds in Denmark over 22 years.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
- Nest boxes increase reproductive output for Tree Swallows in a forest grassland matrix in central British Columbia.PloS one · 2018Article
- Anthropogenic impacts on mosquito populations in North America over the past century.Nature communications · 2016Article
- Severe recent decrease of adult body mass in a declining insectivorous bird population.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2014Article
- Article
- Genomic signatures of near-extinction and rebirth of the crested ibis and other endangered bird species.Genome biology · 2014Article
- Continent-wide tracking to determine migratory connectivity and tropical habitat associations of a declining aerial insectivore.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Numerous environmental pressures have precipitated long-term population reductions of many insect species. Population declines in aerially foraging insectivorous birds have also been detected, but the cause remains unknown partly because of a dearth of long-term monitoring data on avian diets. Chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica) are a model aerial insectivore to fill such information gaps because their roosting behaviour makes them easy to sample in large numbers over long time periods. We report a 48-year-long (1944-1992) dietary record for the chimney swift, determined from a well-preserved deposit of guano and egested insect remains in Ontario (Canada). This unique archive of palaeo-environmental data reflecting past chimney swift diets revealed a steep rise in dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and metabolites, which were correlated with a decrease in Coleoptera remains and an increase in Hemiptera remains, indicating a significant change in chimney swift prey. We argue that DDT applications decimated Coleoptera populations and dramatically altered insect community structure by the 1960s, triggering nutritional consequences for swifts and other aerial insectivores.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.