Regions in Spain, Italy and southern France are particularly at risk, but watercourses in England, Belgium and parts of central Germany - in the north of Thuringia, in the south of Saxony-Anhalt and in the mountainous areas of central Saxony - are at risk as a result of the use of plant protection products in agriculture.

These are the findings published by researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in the latest issue of the reputable journal Science of the Total Environment. The Leipzig-based researchers have modelled the input of plant protection products and the resultant ecological risk to the fauna of small streams and rivers for the 15 "old" EU states. The forecasts were then checked by means of field studies in Finland, France and Germany.
"Our aim was to identify in a timely and cost-effective manner potential risk regions for which it would make sense to carry out detailed modelling or measurement programmes," says Carola Schriever from the UFZ. "A model like this can be very useful, for instance when planning larger monitoring programmes, such as those required for the implementation of the EU's Water Framework Directive."
Tilo Arnhold