Monitoring concept for plant protection products in soils

As part of the new federal action plan for risk reduction and the sustainable use of plant protection products (PPP), the environmental risks posed by PPP are to be halved by 2027. In order to achieve this goal for Swiss soils, a monitoring concept for PPP residues first needs to be developed. In two workshops, the current state of knowledge in the areas of monitoring, ecotoxicological soil reference values and bioindicators was discussed, as were ideas for determining residues and effects of PPP.

In the first phase of the project, a procedure for deriving ecological soil guideline values will be developed and applied to 10 prioritised pollutants. In addition, specific protection goals will be defined and a toolbox with potential bioindicators will be selected. The project is embedded in FOEN's research concept for the years 2017-2020.

Later, the selected bioindicators will be tested and evaluated in pilot studies. In addition, an approach for the evaluation of substance mixtures will be developed and the final concept for soil risk assessment will be re-examined.

Reports

Concept for long-term biomonitoring of residues from plant protection products within the monitoring measure of the Swiss Action Plan on plant protection products WP1: Substance selection for Soil Guideline Value (SGV) derivation – selection criteria and procedure
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Methodology proposal for the derivation of Soil Guideline Values for Plant Protection Product residues Part 1 - Review and comparison of international methodologies
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Methodology proposal for the derivation of Soil Guideline Values for Plant Protection Product residues Part 2 - Recommendations for the derivation of Soil Guideline Values
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Selection of a bioindicator toolbox for monitoring effects of plant protection product residues Part 1 - Linking ecological soil functions and soil organisms
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