TEXTE 76 /2015 Protection of Biodiversity in the Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Pesticides (Plant Protection Products & Biocides) with a Focus on Arthropods, Soil Organisms and Amphibians TEXTE 76/2015 Environmental Research of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety Project No. (FKZ) 3709 65 421 Report No. (UBA-FB) 002175/E Protection of Biodiversity in the Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Pesticides (Plant Protection Products & Biocides) with a Focus on Arthropods, Soil Organisms and Amphibians by Carsten A. Brühl, Annika Alscher, Melanie Hahn Institut für Umweltwissenschaften , Universität Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Germany Gert Berger, Claudia Bethwell, Frieder Graef Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e.V., Müncheberg, Germany Thomas Schmidt, Brigitte Weber Harlan Laboratories, Ittingen, Switzerland On behalf of the Federal Environment Agency (Germany) Imprint Publisher: Umweltbundesamt Wörlitzer Platz 1 06844 Dessau-Roßlau Tel: +49 340-2103-0 Fax: +49 340-2103-2285 [email protected] Internet: www.umweltbundesamt.de /umweltbundesamt.de /umweltbundesamt Study performed by: Institut für Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Koblenz-Landau Fortstr. 7 76829 Landau, Germany Study completed in: August 2013 Edited by: Section IV 1.3 Plant Protection Products Dr. Silvia Pieper Publication as pdf: http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/protection-of-biodiversity-in-the-risk-assessment ISSN 1862-4804 Dessau-Roßlau, September 2015 The Project underlying this report was supported with funding from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear safety under project number FKZ 3709 65 421. The responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the author(s). Table of Contents Table of Contents 1. Summary ............................................................................................................................ 1 2. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 6 3. Pesticides and non-target terrestrial invertebrates ............................................................ 12 3.1 Selection of adequate organism groups ..................................................................... 13 3.1.1 Non-target arthropods (NTA) ............................................................................. 13 3.1.2 Soil organisms .................................................................................................... 19 3.2 Characterization of exposed habitats and their biocoenosis ...................................... 23 3.2.1 Exposed habitats ................................................................................................. 23 3.2.2 Quantification of pesticide input ........................................................................ 27 3.2.3 Protection goals .................................................................................................. 31 3.2.4 Biocoenosis in exposed habitats ......................................................................... 36 3.2.5 Ecological sensitivity ......................................................................................... 43 3.3 Pesticide risk assessment practice and proposals for further developments.............. 45 3.3.1 Non-target arthropods (NTA) ............................................................................. 45 3.3.2 Soil organisms .................................................................................................... 61 3.4 Management of terrestrial habitats in support of biodiversity: current situation and suggestions for improvement ..................................................................................... 68 3.4.1 Risk mitigation measures (RMM) for biocides .................................................. 68 3.4.2 Current risk management for terrestrial off-field habitats concerning inputs of plant protection products .................................................................................... 69 3.4.3 Risk management of plant protection products for non-target arthropods ......... 71 3.4.4 Risk management of plant protection products for soil organisms – no-tillage soil cultivation .................................................................................................... 78 4. Assessment of pesticide exposure of amphibians and reptiles in agricultural landscapes in Germany and evaluation of the present pesticide risk assessment practice in EU ........... 82 4.1 Exposure of amphibian species to pesticides in Germany......................................... 83 4.1.1 Amphibians in agricultural landscapes............................................................... 83 4.1.2 Crop management measures involving plant protection products application, its variability across Germany and new management systems ............................... 86 4.1.3 Number of plant protection product applications to field crops and its regional variability across Germany ................................................................................. 89 4.1.4 Linking migration activity and duration of stay of amphibians in terrestrial habitats to plant protection product applications and crop interception ............. 93 4.1.5 Hot spots of amphibian presence in fields ....................................................... 102 I Table of Contents 4.1.6 Temporal coincidence of amphibian populations with the application of slurry to field crops ......................................................................................................... 103 4.2 Effects of other stressors than pesticides on potentially exposed amphibian species ... ................................................................................................................................. 108 4.2.1 Amphibian red list species: Evidences of decline due to agricultural practice 108 4.2.2 Other direct agricultural effects/stressors to amphibians ................................. 109 4.2.3 Indirect effects due to loss of food animals with plant protection product applications ....................................................................................................... 111 4.2.4 Literature study on amphibian stressors: Main focus on non-agricultural stressors ............................................................................................................ 115 4.2.5 FFH (Habitats Directive) conservation activities ............................................. 117 4.3 Risk assessment of plant protection products as related to amphibian species ....... 118 4.3.1 Evaluation of the present risk assessment methodology for birds and mammals exposed to plant protection products ................................................................ 118 4.3.2 Ecotoxicological studies on the dermal toxicity of plant protection products for amphibians (terrestrial phase): Impacts on juvenile survival of the common frog (Rana temporaria) ............................................................................................ 125 4.3.3 Development of supplementary modules for amphibian specific risk assessments in the authorization of plant protection products ......................... 140 4.4 Risk management measures for plant protection products ...................................... 144 4.5 Reptile exposure to plant protection products ......................................................... 152 4.5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 152 4.5.2 Likelihood and relevance of reptile species exposure to plant protection products in Germany ........................................................................................ 153 4.6 Outlook .................................................................................................................... 159 5. Appendix ........................................................................................................................ 160 5.1 Literature review non-target arthropods .................................................................. 160 5.2 Calculation of the Margin Treatment Index ............................................................ 172 5.3 Preferred habitats ..................................................................................................... 173 5.4 Red list species ........................................................................................................ 176 5.5 Current test systems for arthropods ......................................................................... 178 5.6 Soil-climate-regions (SCR) ..................................................................................... 180 5.7 Treatment Indices for different crops ...................................................................... 181 5.8 Changes in crop share over time .............................................................................. 184 5.9 Changes in plant protection product use over time ................................................. 185 5.10 Analyzed fields per crop ...................................................................................... 186 II Table of Contents 5.11 Soil coverage of different crops, crop specific application of plant protection products and habitat use of adult and juvenile amphibians ................................. 187 5.12 Average soil coverage and interception