Fig. 2.
Observed ecological effects of pesticide exposure on regional surface water biodiversity and distribution curves for global reported measured insecticide concentrations (MICs) in water and sediment relative to regulatory threshold levels (RTLs). (A) Dependency of mean macroinvertebrate family richness at 60 agricultural stream sites on mean aqueous pesticide concentration to RTLSW ratios. Data on family richness, pesticide exposure levels, and categories were taken from ref. 14. The vertical dashed line indicates the RTLSW, and the error bars denote 95% confidence intervals. (B) Blue represents the concentrations in water relative to the substance-specific RTLSW (n = 8,166), and brown represents the concentrations in sediment relative to the substance-specific RTLSED (n = 3,131). The vertical dashed line indicates the RTL.