Avaliação fitossociológica da comunidade infestante em áreas de transição para o café orgânico.

Objetivou-se com este trabalho verificar os efeitos dos insumos orgânicos e convencionais na dinâmica de plantas daninhas da lavoura durante o primeiro e o segundo ano de transição agroecológica. Para isso, montou-se um experimento em um cafezal de seis anos, onde iniciou-se a transição para o sistema de cultivo orgânico. A espécie mais importante no primeiro ano da transição, na maioria das áreas avaliadas, foi Ageratum conyzoides; no segundo ano ocorreu considerável mudança na relação de dominância entre as espécies, destacando-se Leunurus sibiricus na maior parte das áreas estudadas. Ocorreu também aumento do número de espécies presentes na maioria das áreas de um ano para o outro. No segundo ano de transição observou-se decréscimo na diversidade de espécies em relação ao primeiro ano. Dessa forma, pode-se concluir que nos dois anos de avaliação verificaram-se mudanças no número, na diversidade e na relação de importância entre as espécies de um ano para o outro

Spray droplet size, drift potential, and risks to nontarget organisms from aerially applied glyphosate for coca control in Colombia

A wind tunnel atomization study was conducted to measure the emission droplet size spectra for water and Glyphos (a glyphosate formulation sold in Colombia) + Cosmo-flux sprays for aerial application to control coca and poppy crops in Colombia. The droplet size spectra were measured in a wind tunnel for an Accu-Flo nozzle (with 16 size 0.085 [2.16 mm] orifices), under appropriate simulated aircraft speeds (up to 333 km/h), using a laser diffraction instrument covering a dynamic size range for droplets of 0.5 to 3,500 m. The spray drift potential of the glyphosate was modeled using the AGDISP spray application and drift model, using input parameters representative of those occurring in Colombia for typical aerial application operations. The droplet size spectra for tank mixes containing glyphosate and Cosmo-Flux were considerably finer than water and became finer with higher aircraft speeds. The tank mix with 44% glyphosate had a Dv0.5 of 128 m, while the value at the 4.9% glyphosate rate was 140 m. These are classified as very fine to fine sprays. Despite being relatively fine, modeling showed that the droplets would not evaporate as rapidly as most similarly sized agricultural sprays because the nonvolatile proportion of the tank mix (active and inert adjuvant ingredients) was large. Thus, longer range drift is small and most drift that does occur will deposit relatively close to the application area. Drift will only occur downwind and, with winds of velocity less than the modeled maximum of 9 km/h, the drift distance would be substantially reduced. Spray drift potential might be additionally reduced through various practices such as the selection of nozzles, tank mix adjuvants, aircraft speeds, and spray pressures that would produce coarser sprays. Species sensitivity distributions to glyphosate were constructed for plants and amphibians. Based on modeled drift and 5th centile concentrations, appropriate no-spray buffer zones (distance from the end of the spray boom as recorded electronically 5%) for protection of sensitive plants were 50-120 m for coca spray scenarios and considerably lower for poppy spray scenarios. The equivalent buffer zone for amphibia was 5 m. The low toxicity of glyphosate to humans suggests that these aerial applications are not a concern for human health

Impacts of an agri-environment field margin prescription on the flora and fauna of arable farmland in southern Britain

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