Trends of Total Applied Pesticide Toxicity in German Agriculture

Expressing temporal changes in the use of pesticides,
based not
only on amounts (masses) but also on their toxicity for different
species groups, was proposed as a sensible approach for evaluating
potential environmental risks. Here, we calculated the total applied
toxicity (TAT) between 1995 and 2019 for Germany, mapped it, and compared
it to the US TAT and other risk indicators. Results show that the
German TAT for terrestrial vertebrates decreased over time by about
20%. The TAT increased by a factor of three for fishes, largely due
to insecticides, by a factor of two for soil organisms, largely due
to fungicides and insecticides, and, to a lower extent, for terrestrial
plants, solely due to herbicides. Other species groups showed no trends
in TAT, which for pollinators likely results from neonicotinoid use
restrictions. Many TAT trends from Germany and the US differ, partly
due to different insecticide and fungicide uses. TAT, SYNOPS risk
indicators, and the EU Harmonized Risk Indicators, currently being
used to assess the German National Action Plan’s goal to reduce
risks by 30% by 2023, lead to clearly different risk perceptions.
Validated approaches are needed for evaluation of risk quantifications
at the national scale.