DOI: 10.5061/dryad.547d7wmfs
title: R code for: Following regulation, imidacloprid persists and flupyradifurone increases in non-target wildlife

description: After regulation of pesticides, determination of their persistence in the
 environment is an important indicator of effectiveness of these measures.
 We quantified concentrations of two types of systemic insecticides:
 neonicotinoids (imidacloprid, acetamiprid, clothianidin, thiacloprid, and
 thiamethoxam) and butenolides (flupyradifurone), in off-crop non-target
 media of hummingbird cloacal fluid, honey bee (Apis mellifera) nectar and
 honey, and wildflowers before and after regulation of imidacloprid on
 highbush blueberries in Canada in April 2021. We found that mean total
 pesticide load increased in hummingbird cloacal fluid, nectar, and flower
 samples following imidacloprid regulation. On average, we did not find
 evidence of a decrease in imidacloprid concentrations after regulation.
 However, there were some decreases, some increases and other cases with no
 changes in imidacloprid levels depending on the specific media, time point
 of sampling and site type. At the same time, we found an overall increase
 in flupyradifurone, acetamiprid, thiamethoxam and thiacloprid, but no
 change in clothianidin concentrations. In particular, flupyradifurone
 concentrations observed in biota sampled near to agricultural areas
 increased by 2-fold in honey bee nectar, 7-fold in hummingbird cloacal
 fluid, and 8-fold in flowers after the 2021 imidacloprid regulation. The
 highest residue detected in this study was flupyradifurone at 665 ng/mL
 (PPB) in honey bee nectar. Mean total pesticide loads were highest in
 honey samples (84 ± 10 PPB) followed by nectar (56 ± 7 PPB), then
 hummingbird cloacal fluid (1.8 ± 0.5 PPB), and least, flowers (0.51 ± 0.06
 PPB). Our results highlight that limited regulation of imidacloprid does
 not immediately reduce residue concentrations while other systemic
 insecticides, possibly replacement compounds, concurrently increase in
 wildlife.
description: # R code for: Following regulation, imidacloprid persists and
 flupyradifurone increases in non-target wildlife
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.547d7wmfs](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.547d7wmfs) ## Data This Supporting Information data file, Table S1, contains columns for Sample ID (unique identifier of samples with multiple analyte quantitations), species name, media type (CF = hummingbird cloacal fluid, Nectar = honey bee nectar, Flowers = flower heads, Honey = honey bee honey), collection year, imidacloprid regulation status (yes/no), analyte name (acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, flupyradifurone, or thiamethoxam), result (in parts per billion, PPB), whether the quantitation was left-censored (i.e. below the detection limit), site number (see Supporting Figure S1 for map of sampling locations), spatiotemporal proximity to agriculture (reference site, agricultural site before the bloom drop, agricultural site after the bloom drop), and finally, the minimum detection limit (MDL) and minimum reporting limit (MRL) for each chemical quantitation in PPB. ## Code/Software This R script, titled "**English2024_ETAC.R**", contains modelling code, derivation of descriptive statistics, and visualizations of the data, as they are presented in the manuscript. This code accompanies the Supporting Information data file, Table S1.