Important factors are (1) recovery and thus the long-term manifestation of toxic effects on populations and (2) the effect culmination following re-occurring stressor exposure.
As a culmination of favorable effect of major yield components, the highest root yield (16.07 Mg ha−1) was recorded by the same treatment.
Here we identified the mechanism of effect culmination for toxicant stress.
Hence, effect culmination contributes to a mechanistic understanding of sustainable pesticide effects in the field that are far below those concentrations predicted to be safe within the risk assessment process.
Considering this effect culmination enables to link long-term effects of repeated low-dose toxicant pulses at concentrations that should have no effect on the number of individuals within a population (i.e., below the no observed effect concentration for each individual pulse).
This relation shows that the chemical is not inherently more toxic when a competitor is present but that competitive processes are responsible for the culmination of toxicant effects.
We applied an individual-based simulation model of two competing species to ascertain whether repeated toxicant exposure of a sensitive population that is challenged with interspecific competition may result in multigenerational culmination of low-dose effects.
