Question

What are weedicides? Give their effect on the ecology of a place.

Answer 1

Weeds are unwanted plants growing among wanted crops and compete with crop plants for sunlight, nutrients, water etc. Weedicides are the chemicals which are sprayed over the fields to get rid of weeds. 2, 4-D (2, 4 dichlorophenoxy acetic acid) acts as a dicot weedicide. Weedicides effect the ecology of a place to a great extent in the following ways:

1) They generally have negative impacts on bird populations, although the impacts are highly variable.

2) Frog populations may be affected negatively by the use of weedicides as well.

3) Long term exposure of weedicides are responsible for various types of cancers.

4) They can play a role in sex reversal of certain organisms that experience temperature-dependent sex determination leading to alteration of sex ratios.