Future pesticide risk assessment: narrowing the gap between intention and reality

Schäfer, Ralf B.; Liess, Matthias; Altenburger, Rolf; Filser, Juliane; Hollert, Henner; Roß-Nickoll, Martina; Schäffer, Andreas; Scheringer, Martin

doi:10.1186/s12302-019-0203-3

Cited by 95 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…A multitude of anthropogenic stressors lead to a dramatic global decline of pollinating flower visitors, in terms of insect biomass, species richness and number of individuals [ 7 , 15 , 16 ]. Reasons are diverse and frequently discussed throughout the last years [ 17 ]: In agricultural landscapes, pollinators have to cope with a multitude of pesticides, which may occur as combined exposure events over time and space [ 18 , 19 ]. Beside this, the loss of structural diversity and habitats as well as the degradation and isolation of habitats [ 20 ] as a direct effect of monoculture cultivation in agricultural landscapes affect the abundance and biodiversity of pollinators [ 21 , 22 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A “plan bee” for cities: Pollinator diversity and plant-pollinator interactions in urban green spaces

et al. 2020

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Green infrastructure in cities is considered to serve as a refuge for insect pollinators, especially in the light of an ongoing global decline of insects in agricultural landscapes. The design and maintenance of urban green spaces as key components of green infrastructure play a crucial role in case of nesting opportunities and for foraging insects. However, only few research has explored the impact of urban green space design on flower visitor communities, plant-pollinator interaction and the provision of the ecosystem service of pollination in cities. We investigated the abundance and diversity of pollinator communities in different urban park types in designed, standardized vegetation units, linked the visitation rates to the structural composition of the park types and derived indices for implemented pollination performances. The study was performed in two different structural park elements, flower beds and insect-pollinating trees. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between plants and pollinators, we calculated a plant-pollinator network of the recorded community in the investigation area. Visitation rates at different park types clearly showed, that the urban community gardens in comparison to other urban park types had a significantly higher abundance of pollinator groups, comparable to results found on a rural reference site. Tilia trees contributed significantly to the ecosystem service of pollination in investigated green spaces with a high supply of nectar and pollen during their flowering period. Calculations of pollination performances showed that recreational parks had comparably low visitation rates of pollinators and a high potential to improve conditions for the ecosystem service of pollination. The results indicated the strong potential of cities to provide a habitat for different groups of pollinators. In order to access this refuge, it is necessary to rely on near-natural concepts in design and maintenance, to create a wide range of flower diversity and to use even small green patches. Based on the findings, we encourage an integrated management of urban free spaces to consider parks as key habitats for pollinators in anthropogenic dominated, urban environments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A “plan bee” for cities: Pollinator diversity and plant-pollinator interactions in urban green spaces

et al. 2020

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“…Meanwhile, it was reported that PAHs could cause negative effects on aquatic organisms, which may raise the ecological risk on urban river ecosystems [45]. Phosphorous compounds such as organophosphorus pesticides induce toxic effects to luminescent bacterium even at very low concentrations, which is one of the major concerns for aquatic environmental risk assessment [46,47], while BIX is also significantly positively correlated to acute toxicity [48], which is lack of concerns, and should be paid more attention in the future studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking biological toxicity and the spectral characteristics of contamination in seriously polluted urban rivers

et al. 2019

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Background: Urban river pollution risks to environments and human health are emerging as a serious concern worldwide. With the aim to achieve the health of urban river ecosystem, numerous monitoring programs have been implemented to investigate the spectral characteristics of contamination. While due to the complexity of aquatic pollutants, the linkages between harmful effects and the spectral characteristics of contamination are still a major challenge for capturing main threats to urban aquatic environments. To establish these linkages, surface water (SW), sediment pore water (SDPW), and riparian soil pore water (SPW) were collected from five sites of the seriously polluted Qingshui Stream, China. The water-dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphate (TP), fluorescence excitation-emission matrix, and specific ultraviolet absorbance were applied to analyze the spectral characteristics of urban river contamination. The Photobacterium phosphorem 502 was used to test the acute toxicity of the samples. Finally, the correlations between acute toxicity and concentrations of DOC, TN, TP, and the spectral characteristics were explored. Results: The concentrations of DOC, TN, and TP in various samples amounted from 11.41 ± 2.31 to 3844.67 ± 87.80 mg/L, from 1.96 ± 0.06 to 906.23 ± 26.01 mg/L and from 0.06 ± 0.01 to 101.00 ± 8.29 mg/L, respectively. The florescence index (FI) amounted from 1.54 to 3.14, the biological index (BIX) were between 0.94 and 1.57. The distribution patterns of specific ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (SUVA 254) showed that the highest aromaticity and hydrophobicity were found in SDPW and the lowest ones were in SW. All samples showed significantly inhibition on luminescent bacteria. Particularly, the highest acute toxicity was found in site 1 with an EC 50 value of 6.023-fold dilution for the raw SDPW sample. In addition, the highest fluorescence intensity was also observed from SDPW of site 1. Conclusions: Tryptophan-like and protein-like substances could be important DOC fractions contributing remarkably to the acute toxicity in the seriously polluted river. In addition, the significant reduction on acute toxicity was found with the treatment of surface water flow constructed wetland, revealing that constructed wetland could be an effective approach for toxicant degradation. These observations are useful for water treatments, and meaningful for urban sustainable development.

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“…Some combinations show combined synergistic effects that go far beyond what is expected when using current effect models. This high degree of uncertainty makes it difficult to predict the biological effects of toxicant mixtures [1,2]. For many decades two concepts have been applied to predict the combined effects of toxicants:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the synergistic effects of toxicant mixtures

2020

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Background Toxicants often occur simultaneously. Some combinations show synergistic combined effects that go far beyond what is predicted with current effect models. Up until now, only the combined additive effects of similar acting chemicals have been assessed accurately, whereas the combined effects of dissimilar acting chemicals have been greatly underestimated in many cases. Results Here, we use the individual tri-phasic concentration–response relationship of two toxicants with different modes of action to model their combined synergistic effect on Daphnia magna. The novel stress addition approach (SA) predicted the combined effects (LC50) of different esfenvalerate and prochloraz combinations with an uncertainty factor of 2.8 at most, while the traditional effect addition (EA) and concentration addition (CA) approaches underestimated the combined effect by a factor of up to 150 and 660, respectively. Data of the single substance concentration–response relationships and on their combined effects enable to determine the degree of synergism. For the evaluation of the combined toxicant effect, we provide the approach as R package and as Indicate model (http://www.systemecology.eu/indicate/). Conclusion Adding stressors arithmetically, considering non-monotonic cause–effect relationships, is a decisive component in predicting the combined effects of multiple stressors within test systems. However, the extent of the synergistic effects that multiple stressors exert on populations within the ecosystem context is still highly controversial. Various processes are relevant at the ecosystem level, which are not considered in laboratory studies. However, the present work serves as a building block for understanding the effects of multiple stressors in the field.

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Future pesticide risk assessment: narrowing the gap between intention and reality

Cited by 95 publications

References 31 publications

A “plan bee” for cities: Pollinator diversity and plant-pollinator interactions in urban green spaces

A “plan bee” for cities: Pollinator diversity and plant-pollinator interactions in urban green spaces

Linking biological toxicity and the spectral characteristics of contamination in seriously polluted urban rivers

Modeling the synergistic effects of toxicant mixtures

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