Pesticide risks to soil organisms – new modules
Pesticides may pose a risk to soil organisms such as earthworms, springtails, mites and micro-organisms, which all perform important functions with respect to breakdown of organic matter and nutrient cycling in soils. Pesticides can also adversely affect soil biodiversity. Risks to soil organisms are therefore often evaluated before registering a new pesticide product.
New registration tools on risk assessment of chemical pesticides for soil organisms have now been added to the Toolkit.
Advice on data requirements for the soil organisms and processes can be found in the Data Requirements menu, under Ecotoxicology and under Fate and behaviour in the environment
Various options for risk assessment methods are provided in the Assessment Methods menu, under Environmental effects.
Pesticide risk reduction measures for soil organisms can be found in the Risk Mitigation menu, under Inventory of risk mitigation measures.
Options and advice included in the Toolkit are particularly addressing pesticide regulatory authorities with limited human resources, and are based recommendations made by an FAO working group on evaluation of pesticide risks to soil organisms, biodiversity and ecological functions, who met in 2018.