Abstract
Agriculture is the dominating land-use in the EU member states covering nearly half of the surface area. Using herbicides to reduce weed competition in agricultural areas can adversely affect Non-Target Terrestrial Plants (NTTP) growing in field margins. According to the EFSA Scientific Opinion on NTTPs an important protection goal is to maintain the biodiversity of plant species in agricultural areas. EFSA recommends to include also non-crop species mentioned in OECD guidelines (OECD 208 and 227) in the testing and to assess not only vegetative but also generative endpoints during the plant life-cycle such as flowering and seed production. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the feasibility of assessing generative endpoints of crop and non-crop species for NTTP regulatory testing under greenhouse conditions and to assess if generative endpoints are more sensitive than vegetative endpoints. The experimental design consisted of one control and four herbicide (Atlantis® WG) application rates, with 6 replicates each. The application rates of the test substance were the maximum field rate and 30%, 10% and 3% of the field rate. Biomass, plant height, flowering, seed production as well as seedling emergence of the F1 generation were assessed. The study shows a feasible approach to assess vegetative and generative endpoints of (non-) crops species under greenhouse conditions on the basis of the OECD guideline 227. The vegetative endpoints plant height and biomass were not more sensitive if assessed during the generative growth stage when compared to the vegetative growth stage of the plants. In contrast to that, the generative endpoint seed production was partly more sensitive in comparison to the vegetative endpoints biomass and plant height. For regulatory NTTP studies, 5 or more test substance rates at non-lethal levels should be tested so to allow the determination of ER10/50 values for vegetative and generative endpoints.
Highlights
Terrestrial plants are providing a broad spectrum of ecosystem services such as the provision of food, natural medicines or the regulation of air quality [1]
Plants in an agricultural ecosystem can be divided into three groups: crop plants, target plants for herbicides treatments and non-target terrestrial plants (NTTP’s), these being non-crop plants in the off-crop area which should not be affected by any plant protection product (PPP) treatment [3, 4]
The potential side-effects of PPPs on Non-Target Terrestrial Plants (NTTP) is currently assessed under greenhouse conditions by assessing the effects treated soil on the NTTPs seedling emergence according to the OECD 208 guideline [3] and by assessing the effects on vegetative endpoints of sprayed PPPs on young potted crop plants according to the OECD 227 [4] guideline
Summary
Terrestrial plants are providing a broad spectrum of ecosystem services such as the provision of food, natural medicines or the regulation of air quality [1]. Plants in an agricultural ecosystem can be divided into three groups: crop plants, target plants for herbicides treatments (weeds) and non-target terrestrial plants (NTTP’s), these being non-crop plants in the off-crop area which should not be affected by any plant protection product (PPP) treatment [3, 4]. Crop species are used as surrogates for wild off-crop plant species, since easier to cultivate This is in line with the review article of Christl. EFSA, recommended to consider crop and non-crop plant species in the testing and risk assessment scheme as well as to assess generative endpoints such as flowering and seed production on top of vegetative endpoints (e.g. biomass)
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