TY  - JOUR
A1  - Reeg, Jette
A1  - Schad, Thorsten
A1  - Preuss, Thomas G.
A1  - Solga, Andreas
A1  - Körner, Katrin
A1  - Mihan, Christine
A1  - Jeltsch, Florian
T1  - Modelling direct and indirect effects of herbicides on non-target grassland communities
JF  - Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog
N2  - Natural grassland communities are threatened by a variety of factors, such as climate change and increasing land use by mankind. The use of plant protection products (synthetic or organic) is mandatory in agricultural food production. To avoid adverse effects on natural grasslands within agricultural areas, synthetic plant protection products are strictly regulated in Europe. However, effects of herbicides on non-target terrestrial plants are primarily studied on the level of individual plants neglecting interactions between species. In our study, we aim to extrapolate individual-level effects to the population and community level by adapting an existing spatio-temporal, individual-based plant community model (IBC-grass). We analyse the effects of herbicide exposure for three different grassland communities: 1) representative field boundary community, 2) Calthion grassland community, and 3) Arrhenatheretalia grassland community. Our simulations show that herbicide depositions can have effects on non-target plant communities resulting from direct and indirect effects on population level. The effect extent depends not only on the distance to the field, but also on the specific plant community, its disturbance regime (cutting frequency, trampling and grazing intensity) and resource level. Mechanistic modelling approaches such as IBC-grass present a promising novel approach in transferring and extrapolating standardized pot experiments to community level and thereby bridging the gap between ecotoxicological testing (e.g. in the greenhouse) and protection goals referring to real world conditions.
KW  - Plant community modelling
KW  - Herbicide exposure
KW  - Landscape
KW  - Non-target terrestrial plants
KW  - Field margins
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2017.01.010
SN  - 0304-3800
SN  - 1872-7026
VL  - 348
SP  - 44
EP  - 55
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -