Modern agriculture relies on pesticides to ensure crop productivity. Assessing potential impacts of pesticides on endangered species is stymied by uncertainty in data and lack of coordination between agencies. As a result, agencies face a large backlog in assessment that may leave Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species at risk. Here, we apply tools from the field of decision science to elucidate how different options accrue benefits for the resources expended to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the risk assessment process. So far, this work has identified the potential for drastic gains in species risk assessment efficiency that could be achieved for California listed plant species by using high-resolution Carbaryl usage data in the risk assessment process. We are now exploring the regions of the US where collecting high-resolution pesticide usage data is most beneficial in terms of determining compounds that are not likely to adversely affect listed species. Our preliminary results suggest that priority regions for high resolution data include only a few regions in the southeast and southwest. In this session we will discuss these results and how they are being used to support our ongoing work in developing a ranking metric that identifies the species that are most at risk from pesticide exposure to support decisions about prioritizing review.

Opportunities for using decision science to streamline the pesticide risk assessment process for ESA listed species

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.