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Problems with Pesticide Use
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  1. Describe each of the major problems associated with pesticide use (other than risks to human health).

    1. Genetic resistance – pesticide treadmill

 

Genetic resistance is any inherited characteristic that decreases the effect of a pesticide on a pest.

 

·        The initial application of a pesticide is very successful in eliminating a certain pest. Only the select pests that have a certain strain against the pesticide survive.

·        The surviving pests survive and reproduce, passing on their genes to offspring.

·        Thus, future applications of the pesticide are not very effective.

 

Scientists then need to develop different pesticides to combat against the pests. The process, called the pesticide treadmill, is expensive and leads to increased and more frequently pesticide use.

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A new field of study, called resistance management, seeks to combat genetic resistance.

 

    1. Ecosystem disruption – creation of new pests

 

Pesticides are introduced by humans and thus are unnatural disruptions to the environment.

 

·        Pesticides affect species other than the pests.

·        Pesticides may also create new pests by turning minor pests into major problems. The pesticides may kill natural predators, parasites, and competitors, thus increasing the population of a certain species.

 

    1. Persistence, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification

 

Persistence is the ability of synthetic pesticides to resist decomposition. The pesticides are very stable chemically and it makes many years to be broken down into less toxic forms. Natural decomposers cannot speed up the process because they cannot decompose man-made chemicals.

 

Bioaccumulation is the buildup of a pesticide in an organism’s body. Because pesticides are persistent, they are not broken down; Instead, they are stored in fatty tissues and accumulate into sometimes extremely high concentrations.

 

Biomagnification is the increase in pesticide concentrations as the pesticide passes up the food chain.

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    1. Motility in the environment

 

Pesticides do not only harm the area where they are applied, but they sometimes travel long distances to impact even larger areas. Pesticides can travel by rivers, harming fishes and the aquatic ecosystem. The contamination of water also affects the human drinking water supply.

 

Pesticides can also travel by wind and affect areas of organic crops.

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