The report, written by Sonia Shah, states a growing body of evidence indicates pesticide exposure may be playing an important role in the decline of amphibian and bee species. Scientists are investigating whether such exposures may be involved in the death of over one million bats in northeastern United States.

In the case of amphibians, Shah explains pesticides applied to fields in California Central Valley drift into the Sierra Nevada mountains, where they settle in the environment and are absorbed into tissues of amphibians. Meanwhile, bees and bats have suffered a similar fate - killed off by powerful pathogens that in practice seem to have taken advantage of animal populations immuno-compromised by pesticides.