ECOFUN-MICROBIODIV: an FP7 European project for developing and evaluating innovative tools for assessing the impact of pesticides on soil functional microbial diversity- towards new pesticide registration regulation?

摘要

Conventional agriculture is still relying on the use of fertil izers and pesticides, with consequent toxicological pressure on the environment and on human through food chain accumulation and reproductive repercussions under "the thematic strategy for soil protection"; the European Soil Framework Directive (COM(2006)232) clearly identifies agricultural practices as a major threat for soil biodiversity and functioning (Van Camp et al. 2004). The issue was also highlighted by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), an international effort to draw an inventory of global ecosystems, which identified agriculture as a major threat for soil ecosystemic services such as nutrient cycling. Depending on agricultural practices, farmers can either con tribute to increasing or decreasing carbon storage inagricultural soils (Fontaine et al. 2007). In addition, the nitrogen and phosphorous deposited onto agricultural lands through fertilization can be transported to the atmosphere or leach to groundwater (Gregoire et al. 2009). The natural attenuation capacity of soils via the biotransformation of pollutants significantly decreases the persistence of pesticides in the different environmental compartments (Udikovic-Kolic et al. 2012). The successive revisions (2455/2001/CE, 2008/32/CE, 2008/105/CE et 2009/31/ CE) of the European Union (EU) water framework (Directive 2000/60/CE) have led to the definition of new guidelines not only to ensure the high quality of drinking water (EU limit for drinking water 0.1 μg of pesticide per liter) but also to preserve the ecological quality of natural water resources, including surface water systems such as rivers and lakes which are subjected to chemical pollution from cultivated lands, at least in agricultural landscapes. In response to the implementation of the water framework directive, agrochemical companies developed new classes of pesticides which are particularly effective at low doses (i.e., only a few grams per hectare), show high affinity for their target and are characterized by reduced dispersion into the environment (Cessna et al. 2006). As they have been used in low amounts and over a relatively short time period, few environmental data are yet available for these new pesticide classes and one of the major limitations to these studies is that the detection limit of current chemical analyses, although improved within the last few years, still remains too high for this kind of compounds.