In this 2-part article series, we explore the various aspects of dissipation studies and how they are used in risk assessment. Part 1 was published in October and examined Aquatic Dissipation studies.

Today, we move away from water to take a closer look at Terrestrial Field Dissipation (TFD) studies. Unlike their wetter counterparts, Terrestrial Studies, as their name implies, focus on pesticide behavior under typical use conditions when a product is applied to the landscape. These studies help qualify and quantify where and what happens to active ingredients and their degradation products over time. While laboratory studies provide valuable data for specific individual processes, such as with leaching or microbial degradation, observations and results can differ when multiple processes, like drift, plant uptake, runoff, or volatilization, occur in parallel. If the differences are significant, they can potentially change the timing and magnitude of a chemical’s fate. 

In the US, TFD studies are a key data requirement in two situations: the registration of new agrochemical products or when existing products seek changes to their labels such as rates and geographical application areas. To conduct these studies, entities must follow US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) guidance (835.6100) along with Good Laboratory Practice Standards to ensure that quality data and testing are completed. This rule is in place so that comparisons to models of pesticide behaviors from laboratory studies can be confirmed.

Since TFD design and the parameters monitored and collected can vary, samples from soils in the field are typically taken over a 1-2 year period across a replicate block to determine the DT50, DT75 and DT90 field values for soil along with a representative half-life of each parent and major metabolite. Other critical...

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Sometimes really big ideas come in small packages or, in this case, trunks. Microforests or “pocket forests” are the latest weapon in environmentalists’ war against habitat loss and climate change. Comprised of a large variety of native shrubs and trees planted in close proximity to one another on small plots of land, microforests are the brainchild of Japanese botanist, Akira Miyawaki. The microforest movement is quickly taking on steam worldwide as benefits to air, water, and soil quality from these smaller growths are proving impactful. 

The concept takes advantage of a natural phenomenon: by densely planting trees (roughly 10-12’ apart), scientists are capitalizing on shade competition, a natural phenomenon where trees grow quickly to prevent being “shaded out” by other trees. Densely planting large numbers of native shrubs and trees together accelerates tree growth while capitalizing on native fungi that improve soil quality. The end results is a quickly created replacement “forest” with the benefits of its trees in place far faster than planting a single tree alone. In fact, microforests have shown to be as mature and diverse in 20 to 30 years as a 100-year-old forest.

What seems like a simple concept has proven to yield powerful results: microforests can help offset the loss of natural forests which have provided food and shelter to vital plants, bacteria, and animals. The movement’s ace card can be found in its name: micro. Rather than trying to encourage people or governments to devote large parcels of potentially valuable land to nature, scientists are looking for an acre here and there that can be left alone... 

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While November may be best known as the month for roasted turkeys and cranberry sides, it’s also National Banana Pudding Lovers Month. This unusual designation made us nostalgic for a past project involving bananas in Costa Rica. Spanning multiple years, we can say that our work on this project has helped make banana pudding a more environmentally friendly indulgence.

Between 1995 and 1999, Waterborne was asked to help the Banana Company / Agricultural Chemical Company Industry’s “Banana Task Force” work in Costa Rica. Comprised of the industry’s biggest names, including Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte, the Banana Task Force promoted worker safety, conducted insect surveys, and looked at ways to reduce pesticides in waterways. The last is how Waterborne became involved as we were tasked with exploring the use of fate and transport models to evaluate the potential for agricultural chemicals to move to non-target environments associated with their use in banana production.

Waterborne’s modeling overview and results of work with the Banana Task Force was presented at the “1998 International Conference on Pesticide Use in Developing Countries: Impact on Health and Environment. However, before modeling, we were careful to...

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From UV Filters to Population Modeling: SETAC's 45th Annual Meeting! Waterborne was well-represented at this year's SETAC Annual Conference! In addition to talks and posters (Read all about them here), our own Chiara Accolla and Maura Roberts shared their thoughts on the conference, below.

Chiara: 2024’s SETAC Annual Conference has been an enriching conference! Throughout the conference, I had interesting discussions with colleagues and friends on the role of population modeling in risk assessment and how Europe and USA approach this differently. At the time of the conference, the EU is pushing forward in its use of models for actual risk assessment while the USA is moving more conservatively in that direction. My conversations also covered... 

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