
Full text loading...
Many farmers rely on regular pesticide applications to avoid losses from arthropod pests and the diseases they vector. However, widespread and injudicious use of pesticides is detrimental to the environment, poses a health risk, and undermines biocontrol services. Researchers are increasingly required to develop techniques to quantify the trade-offs and risks associated with pesticides. Laboratory studies, though useful for assessing short-term impacts (e.g., mortality), cannot detect longer-term or indirect effects that can potentially be assessed using semifield studies. Here we review the range and scope of studies that have used semifield methods for regulatory testing and risk assessment of pesticides and for understanding the community-level effects of pesticide use in agricultural landscapes. We include studies on target and nontarget species, with an emphasis on quantifying effects when the target species is highly mobile. We suggest improvements in the design and analysis of semifield studies to more effectively assess effects on highly mobile species.
Article metrics loading...
Full text loading...
Literature Cited
Data & Media loading...
Description of Supplemental Table 1: We conducted a quantitative analysis of recently published field-plot trials in broad-acre crops that examined pesticide effects on pest and natural enemy species. We searched Arthropod Management Tests publications for the years 2005 and 2010, focusing just on the 'field crops and cereals' section (F) (www.entsoc.org/Pubs/Periodicals/AMT). In addition, we manually downloaded and searched the open-access IOBC Working group 'Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms' bulletins for the years 2000-2004 (www.iobc-wprs.org/pub/bulletins/index.html). We have summarized a range of characteristics in 156 trials (see Supplemental Table 1 Supporting Information). These trials were mostly pesticide comparisons that used a field-plot design. We categorized the pest or natural enemy species assessed into three mobility classes: low mobility (e.g., Lepidoptera larvae, Acari, Diptera larvae), medium mobility (e.g., Hemiptera, Thysanoptera), and high mobility (e.g., Aphididae, Lepidoptera adults, Coleoptera). We then examined the relationship between mean plot size and mobility score and found that trials focused on species with lower mobility used smaller plot sizes than those that focused on species with higher mobility (see Figure 2 in the text). Download Supplemental Table 1: Summary of Characteristics of Field-Plot Broad-Acre Pesticide Effect Trials (XLSX)