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pesticide usage data maps

Published at 936 × 719 in An Essential U.S. Pesticide Database is Disappearing

Four-part image of three U.S. maps and (at bottom right) a blank section with text reading "2019: Map is not available." At top left, the map is titled "Estimated Agricultural Use for Clothianidin, 2014, EPest-Low," and brown shading covers much of the upper Midwest, with more moderate coverage on the east coast and south. The map at top right has the same title but for 2015, and nearly no parts of the map are shaded. The map at bottom left is titled "Estimated Agricultural Use for Bifenthrin, 2018 (Preliminary), EPest-Low," and brown shading covers much of the upper Midwest, with more moderate coverage on the east coast and south and some sparse coverage in the northwest and west coast.

In recent years, the data available in the USGS Pesticide National Synthesis Project has been reduced, as these examples illustrate. Top row: The insecticide clothianidin is primarily used as a seed treatment. At left is the map showing the estimated use pattern in 2014, while at right is what the map looked like after seed treatments were no longer included in the dataset in 2015. Bottom row: The common insecticide bifenthrin is used in corn, soybeans, cotton, wheat, and fruits and vegetables, among other crops. The map at left shows its use pattern in 2018; as illustrated at right, this information was entirely absent after bifenthrin was dropped from the dataset in 2019. (Images downloaded from the USGS Pesticide National Synthesis Project by Maggie Douglas, Ph.D.)

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