Recovery based on plot experiments is a poor predictor of landscape-level population impacts of agricultural pesticides
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Standard
Recovery based on plot experiments is a poor predictor of landscape-level population impacts of agricultural pesticides. / Topping, Christopher John; Kjær, Lene Jung; Hommen, Udo; Høye, Toke Thomas; Preuss, Thomas G.; Sibly, Richard M.; Van Vliet, Peter.
In: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2014, p. 1499-1507.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - Recovery based on plot experiments is a poor predictor of landscape-level population impacts of agricultural pesticides
AU - Topping, Christopher John
AU - Kjær, Lene Jung
AU - Hommen, Udo
AU - Høye, Toke Thomas
AU - Preuss, Thomas G.
AU - Sibly, Richard M.
AU - Van Vliet, Peter
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Current European Union regulatory risk assessment allows application of pesticides provided that recovery of nontarget arthropods in-crop occurs within a year. Despite the long-established theory of source-sink dynamics, risk assessment ignores depletion of surrounding populations and typical field trials are restricted to plot-scale experiments. In the present study, the authors used agent-based modeling of 2 contrasting invertebrates, a spider and a beetle, to assess how the area of pesticide application and environmental half-life affect the assessment of recovery at the plot scale and impact the population at the landscape scale. Small-scale plot experiments were simulated for pesticides with different application rates and environmental half-lives. The same pesticides were then evaluated at the landscape scale (10km×10km) assuming continuous year-on-year usage. The authors' results show that recovery time estimated from plot experiments is a poor indicator of long-term population impact at the landscape level and that the spatial scale of pesticide application strongly determines population-level impact. This raises serious doubts as to the utility of plot-recovery experiments in pesticide regulatory risk assessment for population-level protection. Predictions from the model are supported by empirical evidence from a series of studies carried out in the decade starting in 1988. The issues raised then can now be addressed using simulation. Prediction of impacts at landscape scales should be more widely used in assessing the risks posed by environmental stressors.
AB - Current European Union regulatory risk assessment allows application of pesticides provided that recovery of nontarget arthropods in-crop occurs within a year. Despite the long-established theory of source-sink dynamics, risk assessment ignores depletion of surrounding populations and typical field trials are restricted to plot-scale experiments. In the present study, the authors used agent-based modeling of 2 contrasting invertebrates, a spider and a beetle, to assess how the area of pesticide application and environmental half-life affect the assessment of recovery at the plot scale and impact the population at the landscape scale. Small-scale plot experiments were simulated for pesticides with different application rates and environmental half-lives. The same pesticides were then evaluated at the landscape scale (10km×10km) assuming continuous year-on-year usage. The authors' results show that recovery time estimated from plot experiments is a poor indicator of long-term population impact at the landscape level and that the spatial scale of pesticide application strongly determines population-level impact. This raises serious doubts as to the utility of plot-recovery experiments in pesticide regulatory risk assessment for population-level protection. Predictions from the model are supported by empirical evidence from a series of studies carried out in the decade starting in 1988. The issues raised then can now be addressed using simulation. Prediction of impacts at landscape scales should be more widely used in assessing the risks posed by environmental stressors.
KW - Animal
KW - Ecological simulation
KW - Ecotoxicology
KW - Landscape
KW - Man simulation system
KW - Population-level risk assessment
KW - Source sink
U2 - 10.1002/etc.2388
DO - 10.1002/etc.2388
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 24038611
AN - SCOPUS:84900513296
VL - 33
SP - 1499
EP - 1507
JO - Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
JF - Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
SN - 0730-7268
IS - 7
ER -
ID: 210974901