Providing ecological modeling support in assessing risks posed by pesticide products

Ecological Modeling of Pesticide Risks to Non-Target Organisms

Pesticides help protect agricultural crops—but by runoff can enter natural land and aquatic environments. They are some of the most regulated substances and, over time, efforts have been made to reduce their use while preserving efficacy. Our environmental experts worked with Syngenta Crop Protection LLC to provide quantitative ecological risk assessments for products containing atrazine.

Using a comprehensive aquatic system model (CASM), we assessed potential ecological risks of atrazine in a variety of exposure scenarios in environments representing the US Midwest corn belt. The CASM ecological model and results for atrazine exposure were subject to peer review and evaluation by an EPA Independent Science Advisory Panel. The CASM atrazine risk modeling has been presented at several annual meetings of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and published in their peer-reviewed technical literature.

With peer review and EPA assessment, we continue to provide CASM ecological modeling support in assessing risks posed by other of Syngenta’s active ingredients. We are now expanding our scope of assessments to include paring CASM with individual based models for the purposes of endangered species risk assessment.