Of course sir!

Weedicides do affect the biodiversity in the place where they are applied. The basic principle of integrated elweed management also says that we should not focus on eradication of any species, but weedicides are aimed to completely kill a weed species and do not allow them to germinate again.

In this way they are potentially damaging the biodiversity.

Further the chemicals applied in the form of weedicides will also kill the several organisms present in the soil.

Thank you.

Yes, broad-spectrum herbicides reduce food sources for birds and mammals, which can cause a substantial decline in populations of rare species. Moreover, by changing vegetation structure, herbicides can render habitats unsuitable for certain species. This threatens insects, farmland birds, and mammals.

You are right. This interesting read on herbicide-free alternative may be of interest as it aims at reducing the impact on biodiversity in its utilization unlike the traditional herbicides.

https://www.weedingtech.com/blog/herbicide-free-alternatives-and-their-impact-on-biodiversity/

Yes, it effects biodiversity. Pesticides have harmful effect on biological diversity and have long term effect on habitat and food chain.

All pesticides inclusive of herbicides are detrimental to biodiversity. The world began to notice the threat to biodiversity after the book ,“The Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson in 1962, especially after noticing the adverse effects of DDT. The concern and outcry lead to the adoption of “The Convention on Biological Diversity" (CBD) in 1992 as a part of the famous “Earth Summit” or “the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development” held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The conference was also instrumental in the adoption of the concept of “sustainable development”.

The most widely used herbicide in the world is glyphosate, which can kill a broadspectrum of vegetation. Biodiversity would be in peril, if you go on indiscriminately using herbicides. Farmers may not be able to completely avoid herbicide, but its use can be restricted as a part of integrated weed management.

Mariano Fracchiolla

Herbicides never increase the yield rather protect the damage to be caused by the unwanted herbs by competing with the main crops. Yes its use is likely to cause harm to the biodiversity. its true that their use remained necessary even in the era of transgenic crops. Attempts shroud be made to minimize their use to the level best possible to save the biodiversity.

Certain herbicides can have disastrous effects. For example repeated application of glyphosate has been shown to favour the selection certain type of invasive plants that became resistant to the herbicide

@ Uma Nath Shukla

Thank you sir for considering us.

M. C. Sidhu, Jean-Pierre Jost Thank you sir for considering and participating in the discussion. Regards

Yes... herbicides may influence biodiversity either to some extent or to a greater extent depending on the time, rate and method we adopted for control..it has been conceptualised that indiscriminate use of herbicide as well as continuous application of same herbicides may result in weed shift and allowing one type of weed flora to flourish while other type of weeds may escape from the system..this can be experienced only when we apply herbicides in a faulty manner..That's why weed management is very very important rather than weed prevention, eradication as well as control..the concept behind weed management is let the weed species present in the field but in a definite number which must be equal to that amount which may not influence yield and other processes involved in crop plant..Let every living organisms survive in the nature but don't allow them to be the part of competition with the economic crop..Herbicide rotation, crop rotation , herbicide mixture and other important strategies play a very vital role to maintain the ecological balances..

Pesticides constitute a major anthropogenic addition to natural communities. In aquatic communities, a great majority of pesticide impacts are determined from singlespecies experiments conducted under laboratory conditions. Although this is an essential protocol to rapidly identify the direct impacts of pesticides on organisms, it prevents an assessment of direct and indirect pesticide effects on organisms embedded in their natural ecological contexts. In this study, I examined the impact of four globally common pesticides (two insecticides, carbaryl [Sevin] and malathion; two herbicides, glyphosate [Roundup] and 2,4-D) on the biodiversity of aquatic communities containing algae and 25 species of animals. Species richness was reduced by 15% with Sevin, 30% with malathion, and 22% with Roundup, whereas 2,4-D had no effect. Both insecticides reduced zooplankton diversity by eliminating cladocerans but not copepods (the latter increased in abundance). The insecticides also reduced the diversity and biomass of predatory insects and had an apparent indirect positive effect on several species of tadpoles, but had no effect on snails. The two herbicides had no effects on zooplankton, insect predators, or snails. Moreover, the herbicide 2,4-D had no effect on tadpoles. However, Roundup completely eliminated two species of tadpoles and nearly exterminated a third species, resulting in a 70% decline in the species richness of tadpoles. This study represents one of the most extensive experimental investigations of pesticide effects on aquatic communities and offers a comprehensive perspective on the impacts of pesticides when nontarget organisms are examined under ecologically relevant conditions.

Chemical weed management is the cheapest source toanage weed. Either or loose crop yield.