Modeling potential freshwater ecotoxicity impacts due to pesticide use in biofuel feedstock production - the cases of maize, rapeseed, Salix, soybean, sugarcane and wheat

• Ecotoxicity impacts haveseldom been included inLife Cycle Assessments ofbiofuels. This reportdemonstrates an approachto model the potentialfreshwater ecotoxicityimpacts due to pesticideuse, using the PestLCI andUSEtox models. Themethod is applied to eightbiofuel feedstockproduction cases: maize inthe US (two cases),rapeseed and wheat inGermany, soybean (twocases) and sugarcane inBrazil, and Salix inSweden. Potentialfreshwater ecotoxicityimpacts vary by up to 3orders of magnitude withSalix at the lower end andwheat and rapeseed at thehigher end. Potentialmitigation strategiesinclude substitution to lesstoxic pesticides, andreduction of emissions tofreshwater ecosystems,through improvedmanagement, e.g. the useof buffer zones.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

freshwater ecotoxicity USEtox PestLCI pesticides bioenergy maize rapeseed Salix sugarcane wheat soybean

Publication and Content Type

rap (subject category)

vet (subject category)