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IMAGE: Insects and crustaceans in surface waters are among those exposed to increasing total applied pesticide toxicity. view more
Credit: Renja Bereswill
A group of scientists from the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany, has shown that for plants and insects the applied pesticide toxicity in agriculture has substantially increased between 2004 and 2016. In a paper published in the current issue of
Science, the authors show that this pattern is even relevant in genetically modified (GM) crops that were originally designed to reduce pesticide impacts on the environment. We have taken a large body of pesticide use data from the US and have expressed changes of amounts applied in agriculture over time as changes in total applied pesticide toxicity, says lead author Ralf Schulz, professor for environmental sciences in Landau. This provides a new view on the potential consequences that pesticide use in agriculture has on biodiversity and ecosystems .