Northern elephant seals (NES) (Mirounga angustirostris) from the Año Nuevo State Reserve (CA, USA) were longitudinally sampled during the post-weaning fast in order to study the mobilisation and redistribution of various classes of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) between blubber and blood. Inner and outer blubber layers were analysed separately. Organohalogenated compounds were detected in all blubber samples in the decreasing order of their concentrations: p,p'-DDE > PCBs ⪢ HCB > PBDEs. The concentrations of all studied compounds were homogeneously distributed in the blubber layer at early fast, since the concentrations of POPs were statistically not different in the inner and outer layers. With the progression of the fast, the concentrations of PBDEs, PCBs and p,p'-DDE increased more sharply in inner blubber than in outer blubber. As a result, their levels became significantly higher in inner blubber as compared to outer blubber at late fast. The rise of pollutant concentrations in blubber might result from a less efficient mobilisation than triglycerides and/or a reuptake by adipocytes of some of the pollutants released into the circulation. The mobilisation of pollutants from blubber was higher at late fast. An increase of pollutant concentrations was observed in serum between early and late fast. Lower halogenated congeners (i.e. tetra-CBs) were present in higher proportions in serum, whereas the higher halogenated congeners (i.e. hepta-CBs) were mainly found in the inner and outer blubber layers. The transfer ratios of both PBDEs and PCBs from inner blubber to serum decreased with the number of chlorine and bromine atoms. In addition, the distribution of both types of compounds between serum and blubber was strongly influenced by their lipophilic character (logKow values), with more lipophilic compounds being less efficiently released from blubber to serum.

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The aim of this research was to evaluate the potential of mechanical weeding for the cultivation of sugar beet by comparing four weed control programmes (one chemical, two mixed (chemical and mechanical) and one mechanical). Under the dry conditions of 2017, the mixed conditions displayed the best effectiveness (more than 97%), using less herbicide and costing €30/ha less than the chemical scheme, while producing a yield identical to that obtained with fully chemical protection. Conversely, the mechanical programme was ineffective (69%), especially on weeds in the crop row (23% effectiveness only); while its cost was lower (€180/ha), it led to a loss of sugar yield of 18.9% compared to chemical weed control.

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All pesticide application equipment in professional use shall be subject to inspections at regular intervals according to the EU Directive 2009/128/EC on the sustainable use of pesticides. Article 8.3 allows the Member States to derogate from the mandatory inspection at regular intervals or to apply different timetables and inspection intervals for certain types of pesticide application equipment based on a risk assessment for human health and environment and an assessment of the scale of use. In order to fulfill Article 8.3, a risk assessment protocol was developed in Belgium within the framework of the SIRA-APESTICON project. It is then applied on the Belgian equipment in use. Therefore, risk is evaluated for the human health and the environment. The assessment is based on technical parameters subject to inspections, their occurrences and severities, but also on national scale of use of the PAE types. Results are expressed at different scale levels: the defect, the machine and the country. They also can be used to help in elaboration of new inspection protocols. This new procedure offers guidelines about the necessity to carry out an inspection of every PAE in use.