Browsing by Author "Brown, Colin D."

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    Calibration of pesticide leaching models
    (2002-09) Dubus, Igor G.; Brown, Colin D.
    Complex deterministic models are being used within the context of pesticide registration to assess the potential for crop protection products to impact on the environment. Although calibration is in many ways at the heart of pesticide fate modelling, it has received little attention in the past. Sensitivity analyses were carried out for the four main leaching models used for pesticide registration in Europe (PELMO, PRZM, PESTLA and MACRO) using four different leaching scenarios and two approaches to sensitivity assessment (one-at-a-time and Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses). Also, an inverse modelling approach was used to estimate values for sorption and degradation parameters from leaching data for seven lysimeters using the PESTRAS model. The overall conclusions of the PhD can be summarised as follows: 1. Sensitivity analyses for the four leaching models mainly used for pesticide registration in Europe demonstrated that predictions for pesticide loss are most sensitive to parameters related to sorption and degradation. In a small number of scenarios, hydrological parameters were found to also have a large influence on predictions for pesticide loss. 2. Sensitivity analysis proved to be an effective approach not only for ranking parameters according to their influence on model predictions, but also for investigating model behaviour in a more general context. However, the research questioned the robustness of the Monte Carlo approach to sensitivity analysis as issues of replicability were uncovered. 3. Inverse modelling exercises demonstrated that non-uniqueness is likely to be widespread in the calibration of pesticide leaching models. Correlation between parameters within the modelling, such as that between sorption and degradation parameters when predicting pesticide leaching, may prevent the robust derivation of values through an inverse modelling approach. Depending on the calibration system considered, these parameters may act as fitting variables and integrate inaccuracies, uncertainties and limitations associated with experimental data, modelling and calibration. 4. A special implementation of error surface analysis termed lattice modelling was proposed in the PhD as an efficient technique to i) assess the likely extent of nonuniqueness issues in the calibration of pesticide leaching models; and, ii) replace traditional parameter estimation procedures where non-uniqueness is expected. Care should be exercised when assessing the results obtained by both modelling and inverse modelling studies. Suggestions to improve the reliability in the calibration of pesticide leaching models have been proposed.
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    Evaluation of probabilistic modelling approaches against data on leaching of isoproturon through undisturbed lysimeters
    (Elsevier, 2004-11-15) Beulke, Sabine; Brown, Colin D.; Dubus, Igor G.; Fryer, Christopher J.; Walker, Allan
    This study evaluated probabilistic modelling approaches against data on leaching of isoproturon through two contrasting soil types. Leaching through undisturbed lysimeters from a sandy loam (Wick series) and a moderately structured clay loam (Hodnet series) was investigated in seven replicates. The variability of soil properties and of sorption and degradation of isoproturon was estimated by taking 6-14 samples within the areas of lysimeter extraction in the field. Normal distributions were assigned to Koc and DT50 and a large number of values for these two parameters were sampled from each distribution. Parameter values were used to simulate movement of isoproturon through the lysimeters with the preferential flow model MACRO. Uncertainty in output distributions was compared with the variability of measured data. A constrained probabilistic assessment varying only degradation and sorption properties was sufficient to match the observed variability in cumulative leaching from the coarse-textured Wick soil (CV = 79%). Variation of pesticide properties alone could not match observed variability in cumulative leaching from the structured Hodnet soil (CV = 61%) and variability in a number of soil properties was incorporated. For both soils, constrained probabilistic approaches where only the top few most sensitive model inputs were varied were sufficient to match or exceed observed variability.
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    Influence of kinetic sorption and diffusion on pesticide movement through aggregated soils
    (Elsevier, 2004-11) Beulke, Sabine; Brown, Colin D.; Fryer, Christopher J.; van Beinum, Wendy
    Laboratory studies were carried out to investigate solute leaching at different times from application in relation to temperature and initial soil moisture. Aggregates of a heavy clay soil were treated with a non-interactive solute (bromide) and the herbicides chlorotoluron, isoproturon and triasulfuron. The soil was incubated at 90% field capacity and either 5 or 15oC. The influence of application to initially dry and initially wet aggregates on the behaviour of isoproturon was also investigated. At intervals, samples were either leached in small columns, centrifuged to characterise the fraction of chemical available in pore water under natural moisture conditions or extracted with organic solvents to assess total residues in soil. Bromide concentrations in leachate and in pore water extracted by centrifugation were constant with time. In contrast, availability for leaching and concentration in pore water of the herbicides decreased with increasing time from application in soil incubated at 15oC. The effect of residence time was much smaller at 5 than at 15oC. At the higher temperature, pesticide concentrations in leachate and pore water declined faster than would be expected from degradation alone, probably due to slow diffusion of the pesticides into soil aggregates where they are less available for leaching and/or slow sorption-desorption. The faster decline in availability for leaching at 15 than at 5oC was attributed to faster degradation of the readily available fraction. There was no significant influence of initial soil moisture on either the leaching behaviour of isoproturon or its availability in soil water.
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    Morphological and physico-chemical properties of British aquatic habitats potentially exposed to pesticides.
    (Elsevier, 2006-04) Brown, Colin D.; Turner, Nigel; Hollis, John; Bellamy, Patricia H.; Biggs, Jeremy; Williams, Penny; Arnold, Dave; Pepper, Tim; Maund, Steve
    Approaches to describe the exposure of non-target aquatic organisms to agricultural pesticides can be limited by insufficient knowledge of the environmental conditions where the compounds are used. This study analysed information from national and regional datasets gathered in the UK describing the morphological and physico-chemical properties of rivers, streams, ponds and ditches. An aggregation approach was adopted, whereby the landscape was divided into 12 hydrogeological classes for agricultural areas and a 13th class that comprised non-agricultural land. The data describe major differences in the abundance, dimensions and chemistry of waterbodies in the different landscapes. There is almost an order of magnitude difference in the total input of pesticide per unit area between the different landscapes. Ditches are shown to be most proximate to arable land, streams and rivers intermediate and ponds the least proximate. Results of the study have implications for the development of standard scenarios for use in protective screening steps within the risk assessment. Data can be used to produce more realistic estimates of the exposure of aquatic systems to pesticides and to examine how that exposure varies across the landscape.
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    Simulating pesticides in ditches to assess ecological risk (SPIDER): I. Model description.
    (Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam., 2008-05-01T00:00:00Z) Renaud, Fabrice G.; Bellamy, Patricia H.; Brown, Colin D.
    Risk assessment for pesticides in the aquatic environment relies on a comparison between estimated exposure concentrations in surface water bodies and endpoints from a series of effect tests. Many field- and catchment-scale models have been developed, ranging from simple empirical models to comprehensive, physically- based, distributed models that require complex parameterisation, often through inverse modelling methods. Routine use of catchment models for assessment and management of pesticides requires a tool that is comprehensive in being able to address all major routes of entry of pesticides into surface water and that has reasonable parameter requirements. Current models either focus primarily on transport of pesticides in surface runoff or are restricted in application because they require calibration against data from detailed monitoring programmes. SPIDER (Simulating Pesticides In Ditches to assess Ecological Risk) was developed to address the gap in models available to simulate pesticide exposure within networks of small surface water bodies (ditches and streams) in support of ecological risk assessment for pesticides. SPIDER is a locally distributed, capacitance-based model that accounts for pesticide entry into surface water bodies via spray drift, surface runoff, interlayer flow and drainflow and that can be used for small agricultural catchments. This paper provides a detailed description of the model.
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    Small Water Bodies in Great Britain and Ireland: Ecosystem function, human-generated degradation, and options for restorative action
    (Elsevier, 2018-07-26) Riley, William D.; Potter, Edward C. E.; Biggs, Jeremy; Collins, Adrian L.; Jarvie, Helen P.; Jones, J. Iwan; Kelly-Quinn, Mary; Ormerod, Steve J.; Sear, David A.; Wilby, Robert L.; Broadmeadow, Samantha; Brown, Colin D.; Chanin, Paul; Copp, Gordon H.; Cowx, Ian G.; Grogan, Adam; Hornby, Duncan D.; Huggett, Duncan; Kelly, Martyn G.; Naura, Marc; Newman, Jonathan R.; Siriwardena, Gavin M.
    Small, 1st and 2nd-order, headwater streams and ponds play essential roles in providing natural flood control, trapping sediments and contaminants, retaining nutrients, and maintaining biological diversity, which extend into downstream reaches, lakes and estuaries. However, the large geographic extent and high connectivity of these small water bodies with the surrounding terrestrial ecosystem makes them particularly vulnerable to growing land-use pressures and environmental change. The greatest pressure on the physical processes in these waters has been their extension and modification for agricultural and forestry drainage, resulting in highly modified discharge and temperature regimes that have implications for flood and drought control further downstream. The extensive length of the small stream network exposes rivers to a wide range of inputs, including nutrients, pesticides, heavy metals, sediment and emerging contaminants. Small water bodies have also been affected by invasions of non-native species, which along with the physical and chemical pressures, have affected most groups of organisms with consequent implications for the wider biodiversity within the catchment. Reducing the impacts and restoring the natural ecosystem function of these water bodies requires a three-tiered approach based on: restoration of channel hydromorphological dynamics; restoration and management of the riparian zone; and management of activities in the wider catchment that have both point-source and diffuse impacts. Such activities are expensive and so emphasis must be placed on integrated programmes that provide multiple benefits. Practical options need to be promoted through legislative regulation, financial incentives, markets for resource services and voluntary codes and actions.
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    Using a linked soil model emulator and unsaturated zone leaching model to account for preferential flow when assessing the spatially distributed risk of pesticide leaching to groundwater in England and Wales
    (Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam., 2004-01-05T00:00:00Z) Holman, Ian P.; Dubus, Igor G.; Hollis, J. M.; Brown, Colin D.
    Although macropore flow is recognized as an important process for the transport of pesticides through a wide range of soils, none of the existing spatially distributed methods for assessing the risk of pesticide leaching to groundwater account for this phenomenon. The present paper presents a spatially distributed modelling system for predicting pesticide losses to groundwater through micro- and macropore flow paths. The system combines a meta version of the mechanistic, dual porosity, preferential flow pesticide leaching model MACRO (the MACRO emulator), which describes pesticide transport and attenuation in the soil zone, to an attenuation factor leaching model for the unsaturated zone. The development of the emulator was based on the results of over 4000 MACRO model simulations. Model runs describe pesticide leaching for the range of soil types, climate regimes, pesticide properties and application patterns in England and Wales. Linking the MACRO emulator to existing spatial databases of soil, climate and compound-specific loads allowed the prediction of the concentration of pesticide leaching from the base of the soil profile (at 1 m depth) for a wide range of pesticides. Attenuation and retardation of the pesticide during transit through the unsaturated zone to the watertable was simulated using the substrate attenuation factor model AQUAT. The MACRO emulator simulated pesticide loss in 10 of 12 lysimeter soil-pesticide combinations for which pesticide leaching was shown to occur and also successfully predicted no loss from 3 soil-pesticide combinations. Although the qualitative aspect of leaching was satisfactorily predicted, actual pesticide concentrations in leachate were relatively poorly predicted. At the national scale, the linked MACRO emulator / AQUAT system was found to predict the relative order of, and realistic regional patterns of, pesticide leaching for atrazine, isoproturon, chlorotoluron and lindane. The methodology provides a first-step assessment of the potential for pesticide leaching to groundwater in England and Wales. Further research is required to improve the modelling concept proposed. The system can be used to refine regional groundwater monitoring system designs and sampling strategies and improve the cost-effectiveness of the measures needed to achieve “good status” of groundwater quality as required by the Water Framework Direct