Abstract:
According to the current legal background for the regulation of
genetically modified plants (GMPs) in Europe, an environmental risk
assessment (ERA) has to be performed considering i) the crop plant,
ii) the novel trait relating to its intended effect and phenotypic
characteristics of the GM crop plant and iii) the receiving
environment related to the intended use of the GMP. However, the
current GMP-ERA does not differentiate between different intended
receiving environments. Therefore, the question is to be
raised:
How can the 'receiving environment' be classified on the European
scale, both in an ecologically relevant and feasible way? As a
first step this proposal focuses on invertebrates in the
terrestrial environmental compartment.
In order to check if already existing regionalization concepts are
suitable for the above raised question the following selection
criteria were employed:
- Distribution of non-target organisms (NTOs): A suitable
regionalization concept should appropriately reflect the specific
characteristics of the animal and plant communities of the
different receiving environments of a GMP. Therefore, such a
classification should be done by an ecoregion approach, meaning
that different ecoregions support different organism communities
that may play a different role in supporting relevant ecosystem
services. However, information on the distribution of invertebrates
in Europe is not available in sufficient detail for this purpose.
Hence, it is proposed to use the information about site conditions
like climatic, vegetation and soil parameters, which determine the
composition of invertebrate communities, for the selection of an
appropriate classification concept.
- Size and number of geographical units: This is a trade-off
between the total number of 'receiving
environments' in Europe manageable in a regulatory context and the
ecological uniformity of a single
geographical unit. An intermediate size and number of geographical
units should be the aim of the
classification.
With the 'Indicative map of European biogeographical regions'
(IMEBR) there is an existing regionalization
concept that meets many of the requirements identified above: the
classification is based on
parameters that also determine the distribution of invertebrate
communities (i.e., the potential natural
vegetation) and nine biogeographical regions represented within the
27 member states of the European
Union (EU-27) are a manageable number for regulatory purposes.
However, epigeic (living above ground)
and endogeic (living below ground) faunal communities are
determined by different biotic and abiotic
parameters. For example, climate data is much more relevant for
epigeic species than for endogeic organisms.
The most important soil properties related to the distribution of
endogeic organisms and plants
are pH, texture, organic matter content and/or content of organic
carbon, C/N ratio, and water-holding
capacity. Hence, for endogeic non-target organisms there is
currently no suitable regionalization concept
available. For the time being, it is recommended to identify
important species for testing purposes in each
ecoregion with GMP cultivation by means of expert knowledge using
the IMEBR for both epigeic and
endogeic communities.
The regionalization concept is intended to be used in the context
of the ERA of GMPs for the assessment
of risk for NTOs. Hence, it should be tailored for the area in the
EU where GMPs are likely to be
grown. The overlap between the biogeographical regions and the
intended area of cultivation for a novel
GMP form the different cases, each of which should undergo a
specific ERA process.
For example, there would be eight or nine separate potato cases for
the EU-27 area, i.e. the Alpine,
Atlantic, Boreal, Continental, Macaronesian, Mediterranean,
Pannonian, Steppic and possibly the Black
Sea biogeographical regions. For grain maize there would be five to
nine separate cases, i.e. the Atlantic,
Continental, Mediterranean, Pannonian, Steppic and possibly the
Alpine, Black Sea, Boreal and Macaronesian
biogeographical regions.
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