Insights into using the HAIR2014 tool to estimate soil pesticide risk in agricultural soils in Ireland

The HAIR 2014 (HArmonized environmental Indicators for pesticide Risk) modelling tool _[1],[2] was used to  estimate the risks of pesticide use in agricultural soils in Irish agricultural  sites. This work  was  undertaken as a part of the PROTECTS research project _[3], which is collating the baseline information required to build towards mitigating the impacts of pesticide use in terrestrial ecosystem services in Ireland. We focused on estimating the potential  risks posed by pesticides in a number of agricultural  sites  using specific terrestrial risk-indicators in the HAIR2014 _[2] for selected active substances (ASs). on refinements to the  HAIR2014 tool for Irish conditions [4],[5] , and involved adjusting  the tool to include model-inputs at the site-scale for a number of Irish agricultural sites. The sites were sampled and the soils analysed during 2019 and 2021 for  the quantification of  ASs residues, as well as other soil physical-chemical parameters.  Climate data for each site were obtained from the nearest Met Éireann weather station [6]. The information on crop, soil, and ASs application rates obtained from the on-site investigations was fed into HAIR databases. The  previously refined spatial (GEO) database [4], [5] was also adjusted for site-scale modelling. We will present the generated HAIR2014 simulation outputs for selected ASs, such as the acute and chronic terrestrial risk indicators for earthworms (ETR_e) [2] for the Irish agricultural sites used in this study. The overarching aim of this work is to generate pesticide risk indicator outputs for Irish agricultural soils that will inform potential site-scale risk assessments and assist the development of recommendations for potential future national soil-monitoring /sampling needs.

 

Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) for funding the PROTECTS project.

 

Literature

 

[1] HAIR2014, (last assessed 2022). HArmonized environmental Indicators for pesticide Risk. URLs: https://www.pesticidemodels.eu/; https://www.pesticidemodels.eu/hair/hair2014.

[2] Kruijne, R., et al.  (2011). HAIR2014 Software Manual (2014);  Hair 2010 Documentation Alterra Wageningen UR.

[3] PROTECTS project, (2018). Protecting terrestrial ecosystems through sustainable pesticide use URL: https://protects.ucd.ie.

[4] Premrov, A., Saunders, M., Zimmermann, J., Stout, J., (2021). Insights into preliminary procedures for estimation of soil pesticide risks in Irish grasslands using HAIR2014 tool, IGRM2021, Limerick, Ireland. URL: https://www.mic.ul.ie/sites/default/files/uploads/624/Premrov%20IGRM%20poster.pdf.

[5] Premrov, A., Saunders, M., et al, and Stout, J.(2022) Insights into using HAIR2014 tool for estimating soil pesticide risks in Irish grasslands for selected herbicide active substances , EGU General Assembly 2022, EGU22-2989, URL: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2989, 2022.

[6] Met Éireann (latest assessed 2023) Historical Data URLs: www.met.ie; https://www.met.ie/climate/available-data/historical-data.(License CC-BY-4.0; Copyright Met Éireann).