Pesticides affect a diverse range of non-target species and may be linked to global biodiversity loss. The magnitude of this hazard remains only partially understood. We present a synthesis of pesticide (insecticide, herbicide and fungicide) impacts on multiple non-target organisms across trophic levels based on 20,212 effect sizes from 1,705 studies. For non-target plants, animals (invertebrate and vertebrates) and microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), we show negative responses of the growth, reproduction, behaviour and other physiological biomarkers within terrestrial and aquatic systems. Pesticides formulated for specific taxa negatively affected non-target groups, e.g. insecticidal neonicotinoids affecting amphibians. Negative effects were more pronounced in temperate than tropical regions but were consistent between aquatic and terrestrial environments, even after correcting for field-realistic terrestrial and environmentally relevant exposure scenarios. Our results question the sustainability of current pesticide use and support the need for enhanced risk assessments to reduce risks to biodiversity and ecosystems.

Because it is only possible to test chemicals for effects on a restricted range of species and exposure scenarios, ecotoxicologists are faced with a significant challenge of how to translate the measurements in model species into predictions of impacts for the wider range of species in ecosystems. Because of this challenge, within ecotoxicology there is no more fundamental aspect than to understand the nature of the traits that determine sensitivity. To account for the uncertainties of species extrapolations in risk assessment, “safety factors” or species sensitivity distributions are commonly used. While valuable as pragmatic tools, these approaches have no mechanistic grounding. Here we highlight how mechanistic information that is increasingly available for a range of traits can be used to understand and potentially predict species sensitivity to chemicals. We review current knowledge on how toxicokinetic, toxicodynamic, physiological, and ecological traits contribute to differences in sensitivity. We go on to discuss how this information is being used to make predictions of sensitivity using correlative and trait-based approaches, including comparisons of target receptor orthologs. Finally, we discuss how the emerging knowledge and associated tools can be used to enhance theoretical and applied ecotoxicological research through improvements in mechanistic modeling, predictive ecotoxicology, species sensitivity distribution development, mixture toxicity assessment, chemical design, biotechnology application and mechanistically informed monitoring.

New methods are needed for research into non-model organisms, to monitor the effects of toxic disruption at both the molecular and functional organism level. We exposed earthworms (Lumbricus rubellus Hoffmeister) to sub-lethal levels of copper (10–480 mg/kg soil) for 70 days as a real-world situation, and monitored both molecular (cDNA transcript microarrays and nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolic profiling: metabolomics) and ecological/functional endpoints (reproduction rate and weight change, which have direct relevance to population-level impacts).

Change in land use and management can impact massively on soil ecosystems. Ecosystem engineers and other functional biodiversity in soils can be influenced directly by such change and this in turn can affect key soil functions. Here, we employ meta-analysis to provide a quantitative assessment of the effects of changes in land use and land management across a range of successional/extensification transitions (conventional arable → no or reduced tillage → grassland → wooded land) on community metrics for two functionally important soil taxa, earthworms and fungi. An analysis of the relationships between community change and soil structural properties was also included.

Background: The 'exposome' represents the accumulation of all environmental exposures across a lifetime. Top-down strategies are required to assess something this comprehensive, and could transform our understanding of how environmental factors affect human health. Metabolic profiling (metabonomics/metabolomics) defines an individual's metabolic phenotype, which is influenced by genotype, diet, lifestyle, health and xenobiotic exposure, and could also reveal intermediate biomarkers for disease risk that reflect adaptive response to exposure. We investigated changes in metabolism in volunteers living near a point source of environmental pollution: a closed zinc smelter with associated elevated levels of environmental cadmium. Methods: High-resolution ¹H NMR spectroscopy (metabonomics) was used to acquire urinary metabolic profiles from 178 human volunteers. The spectral data were subjected to multivariate and univariate analysis to identify metabolites that were correlated with lifestyle or biological factors. Urinary levels of 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine were also measured, using mass spectrometry, as a marker of systemic oxidative stress. Results: Six urinary metabolites, either associated with mitochondrial metabolism (citrate, 3-hydroxyisovalerate, 4-deoxy-erythronic acid) or one-carbon metabolism (dimethylglycine, creatinine, creatine), were associated with cadmium exposure. In particular, citrate levels retained a significant correlation to urinary cadmium and smoking status after controlling for age and sex. Oxidative stress (as determined by urinary 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine levels) was elevated in individuals with high cadmium exposure, supporting the hypothesis that heavy metal accumulation was causing mitochondrial dysfunction. Conclusions: This study shows evidence that an NMR-based metabolic profiling study in an uncontrolled human population is capable of identifying intermediate biomarkers of response to toxicants at true environmental concentrations, paving the way for exposome research.