Within the EU, the Environmental Risk Assesment group is one of the leading research groups in the field of development of models for pesticide fate in the environment. These models (i.e. PEARL, TOXSWA) have an international reputation for high quality and are used for registration of pesticides on an European and national level. Scientists of the Environmental Risk Assesment group have a sound understanding of these models and the underlying processes.
Models are also developed at Alterra to assess the ecological effect of pesticides in the environment. Our PERPEST tool is a probabilistic model, which can be used to predict ecological effects of pesticides. We can also model recovery using the meta-population model MASTEP to assess spatial and temporal effects of pesticides
A substantial research program of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality supports the model development for registration of pesticides.
Current models:
New developments:
- Predicting the response of aquatic invertebrates to stress using the traits of taxa and the mode of action of the stressor as predictors: MassiveScience (Website Massive Science)
- Modelling of pesticide leaching on a national scale for Dutch pesticide registration GEOPEARL (Website GEOPEARL)
Contact for more information: Jos Boesten or Paul van den Brink