Professor Colin Brown
Team Leader
colin.brown@csl.gov.uk
Colin is Professor of Environmental Science in the Environment Department of the University of York and joint leader of the EcoChemistry Research Team – a collaborative venture between the Defra Central Science Laboratory and the University of York. With a broad-based training in agricultural and environmental chemistry from the University of Leeds and the University of Newcastle, Colin was previously head of Cranfield Centre for EcoChemistry at Cranfield University.
Colin has particular interest in the fate, behaviour and effects of pesticides and he co-ordinates a significant number of research projects in this area. His work has involved catchment-level monitoring, field manipulation experiments, lysimeter experiments, laboratory-based process investigations and extensive development of models and risk assessment methods. Colin’s research has a strong policy-based focus; he has been involved in the development of ecological risk assessment in the UK and Europe and his research has contributed to the introduction of regulatory approaches to minimising environmental contamination by pesticides. He regularly works for a number of national and international organisations including the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the UK Environment Agency, the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and the European Commission.
Colin is a member of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and chair of the DG Sanco FOCUS work group on Landscape and Mitigation Factors in Ecological Risk Assessment. He is chair of the BioResources Group of the Society of Chemical Industry and serves on the editorial board of Pest Management Science. He acts in an advisory capacity to the International Life Sciences Institute Task Force on Environment and Health and is active in the organisation of conferences and workshops, recently chairing the SCI conference on Pesticide Behaviour in Soils, Water and Air (Warwick, 27-29 March 2006) and the SCI/SETAC symposium on Landscape Analysis and Risk Assessment (London, March 2004). He was on the organising committee for the SETAC workshop ELINK (linking exposure and effects of pesticides: Bari, Italy March 2007 & Wageningen, The Netherlands September 2007) and the EU/SETAC workshop on Effects of Pesticides in the Field (EpiF, Le Croisic, France, October 2003).
Publications
Ashauer, R. and Brown, C.D.(2008) Toxicodynamic assumptions in ecotoxicological hazard models Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 27(8):1817-1821
Kah, M. and Brown, C.D.(2008) LogD: Lipophilicity for ionisable compounds Chemosphere 72(10):1401-1408
Villaverde, J., Kah, M. and Brown, CD.(2008) Adsorption and degradation of four acidic herbicides in soil from southern Spain Pest Management Science 64(7):703-710
Renaud, F.G. and Brown, C.D.(2008) Simulating pesticides in ditches to assess ecological risk (SPIDER): II. Benchmarking for the drainage model Science of the Total Environment 394(1):124-133
Renaud, F.G., Bellamy, P.H. and Brown, C.D.(2008) Simulating pesticides in ditches to assess ecological risk (SPIDER): I. Model description Science of the Total Environment 394(1):112-123
Sannino, F., Iorio, M., De Martino, A., Pucci, M., Brown, C.D. and Capasso, R.(2008) Remediation of water contaminated with ionic herbicides by sorption on polymerin Weed Research 42(3):643-652
Frewer, L.J., Fischer, A.R.H., van der Brink, P.J., Byrne, P., Brock, T., Brown, C., Crocker, J., Goerlitz, G., Hart, A., Scholderer, J. and Solomon, K.(2008) Potential for the adoption of probabilistic risk assessments by end-users and decision-makers Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 14(1):166-178
Brown, C.D., Holmes, C., Williams, R., Beulke, S., van Beinum, W. Pemberton, E. and Wells, C.(2007) How does crop type influence risk from pesticides to the aquatic environment? Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 26(9):1818-1826
Ashauer, R., Boxall, A.B.A. and Brown, C.D. (2007) Simulating toxicity of carbaryl to Gammarus pulex after sequential pulsed exposure Environmental Science and Technology 41(15):5535-5541
Ashauer, R., Boxall, A.B.A. and Brown, C.D. (2007) Modeling combined effects of pulsed exposure to carbaryl and chlorpyrifos on Gammarus pulex Environmental Science and Technology 41(15):5528-5534
Ashauer, R., Boxall, A.B.A. and Brown, C.D. (2007) New ecotoxicological model to simulate survival of aquatic invertebrates after exposure to fluctuating and sequential pulses of pesticides Environmental Science and Technology 41(4):1480-1486
Kah, M., Beulke, S. and Brown C.D.(2007) Factors influencing degradation of pesticides in soils Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 55(11):4487-4492
Kah, M. and Brown C.D. (2007) Changes in pesticide adsorption with time at high soil to solution ratios Chemosphere 68(7):1335-1343
Kah, M. and Brown C.D. (2007) Prediction of the adsorption of ionisable pesticides in soils Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 55(6):2312-2322
Biggs, J., Williams, P., Whitfield, M., Nicolet, P., Brown, C.D., Hollis, J.M., Maund, S.J., Arnold. D.J. and Pepper, T. (2007) The freshwater biota of British agricultural landscapes Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 122(2):137-148
van Beinum, W., Beulke, S., Fryer, C.J. and Brown, C.D. (2006) Lysimeter experiment to investigate the potential influence of diffusion-limited sorption on pesticide availability for leaching Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 54(24):9152-9159
Ashauer, R., Boxall, A.B.A. and Brown, C.D. (2006) Uptake and elimination of chlorpyrifos and pentachlorophenol into the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 51(4):542-548
Kah, M. and Brown, C.D. (2006) Adsorption of ionisable pesticides in soil Reviews in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 188:(149-218)
Beulke, S. and Brown, C.D. (2006) Impact of correlation between pesticide parameters on estimates of environmental exposure Pest Management Science 62(7):603-609
Ashauer, R., Boxall, A.B.A. and Brown, C.D.(2006) Predicting effects on aquatic organisms from fluctuating or pulsed exposure to pesticides Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 25(7):1899–1912
Brown, C.D., Turner, N., Hollis, J., Bellamy, P., Biggs, J., Williams, P., Arnold, D., Pepper, T. and Maund, S. (2006) Morphological and physico-chemical properties of British aquatic habitats potentially exposed to pesticides Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 113(1-4):307-319
van den Brink, P.J., Brown, C.D. and Dubus, I.G. (2006) Using the expert model PERPEST to translate measured and predicted pesticide exposure data into ecological risks Ecological Modelling 191(1):106-117
van Beinum W., Beulke S. and Brown C.D.(2006) Pesticide sorption and desorption by lignin described by an intra-particle diffusion model Environmental Science and Technology 40(2):494-500
Beulke S., Brown C.D., Dubus I.G., Galicia H., Jarvis N., Schaefer D. and Trevisan M.(2006) User-subjectivity in Monte Carlo modeling of pesticide exposure Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 25(8):2227-2236
van Beinum, W., Beulke, S. and Brown, C.D. (2005) Pesticide sorption and diffusion in natural clay loam aggregates Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 53(23):9146-9154
Beulke S., van Beinum W., Brown C.D., Mitchell, M. and Walker, A.(2005) Evaluation of simplifying assumptions on pesticide degradation in soil Journal of Environmental Quality 34(6):1933-1943
Renaud, F.G., Brown, C.D., Fryer, C.J. and Walker, A. (2004) A lysimeter experiment to investigate temporal changes in the availability of pesticide residues for leaching Environmental Pollution 131(1):81-91
Brown, C.D., Dubus, I.G., Fogg, P., Spirlet, M., Reding, M-A. and Gustin, C. (2004) Exposure to sulfosulfuron in agricultural drainage ditches: Field monitoring and scenario-based modelling Pest Management Science 60(8):765-776
Dubus I.G., Beulke S., Brown C.D., Gottesbüren B. and Dieses A.(2004) Inverse modelling for estimating sorption and degradation parameters for pesticides Pest Management Science 60(9) :859-874
Beulke S., Brown C.D., Dubus I.G., Fryer, C.J. and Walker A.(2004) Evaluation of probabilistic modelling approaches against data on leaching of isoproturon through undisturbed lysimeters Ecological Modelling 179(1):131-144
Renaud F.G., Leeds-Harrison P.B., Brown C.D., and van Beinum W.(2004) Determination of time-dependent partition coefficients for several pesticides using diffusion theory Chemosphere 57(11):1525-1535
Beulke S., Brown C.D., Fryer C.J. and van Beinum W.(2004) Influence of kinetic sorption and diffusion on pesticide movement through aggregated soils Chemosphere 57(6):481-490
Lewis, K.A., Brown, C.D., Hart, A. and Tzilivakis, J. (2003) p-EMA (III): Overview and evaluation of a software system designed to assess the environmental risk of agricultural pesticides Agronomie 23(1):85-96
Holman, I.P., Dubus IG, Hollis, J.M. and Brown, C.D. (2003) Using a linked soil model emulator and unsaturated zone leaching model to account for preferential flow when assessing the spatially distributed risk of pesticide leaching to groundwater in England and Wales Science of the Total Environment 318(1-3):73-88
Hart, A., Brown, C.D., Lewis, K.A. and Tzilivakis, J. (2003) p-EMA (II): Evaluating ecological risks of pesticides for a farm-level risk assessment system Agronomie 23(1):75-84
Brown, C.D., Hart, A., Lewis, K.A. and Dubus, I.G. (2003) p-EMA (I): Simulating the environmental fate of pesticides for a farm-level risk assessment system Agronomie 23(1):67-74
Dubus I.G., Brown C.D. and Beulke S.(2003) Sources of uncertainty in pesticide fate modelling Science of the Total Environment 317(1-3):53-72
Dubus I.G., Brown C.D. and Beulke S.(2003) Sensitivity analyses for leaching models used for pesticide registration in Europe Pest Management Science 59(9):962-982
Dubus, I.G. and Brown, C.D. (2002) Sensitivity and first-step uncertainty analyses for the preferential flow model MACRO Journal of Environmental Quality 31(1):227-240
Brown, C.D., Bellamy, P.H. and Dubus, I.D. (2002) Prediction of pesticide concentrations found in rivers in the UK Pest Management Science 58(4):363-373
Boxall, A.B.A., Brown, C.D. and Barrett, K. (2002) Higher tier aquatic toxicity testing for pesticides Pest Management Science 58(7):637-648
Dyson J.S., Beulke S., Brown C.D., and Lane, M.C.G.(2002) Adsorption and degradation of the weak acid mesotrione in soil and environmental fate implications Journal of Environmental Quality 31(2):613-618
Dubus I.G., Beulke S. and Brown C.D.(2002) Calibration of pesticide leaching models: critical review and guidance for reporting Pest Management Science 58(8):745-758
Beulke S., Brown C.D., Fryer C.J. and Walker, A.(2002) Lysimeter study to investigate the effect of rainfall patterns on leaching of isoproturon Pest Management Science 58(1):45-53
Brown, C.D., Fryer, C.J. and Walker, A. (2001) Influence of topsoil tilth and soil moisture status on losses of pesticide to drains from a heavy clay soil Pest Management Science 57(12):1127-1134
Beulke S., Brown C.D., Dubus I.G. and Harris G.(2001) Evaluation of uncalibrated preferential flow models against data for isoproturon movement to drains through a heavy clay soil Pest Management Science 57(6):537-547
Beulke S. and Brown C.D.(2001) Evaluation of methods to derive pesticide degradation parameters for regulatory modelling Biology and Fertility of Soils 33(6):558-564
Vanclooster, M., Boesten, J.J.T.I., Trevisan, M., Brown, C.D., Capri, E., Eklo, O.M., Gottesburen, B., Gouy, V. and Van der Linden, A.M.A. (2000) A European test of pesticide leaching models: Methodology and major recommendations Agricultural Water Management 44(1-3):1-19
Jones, R.L., Arnold, D.J.S., Harris, G.L., Bailey, S.W., Pepper, T.J., Mason, D.J., Brown, C.D., Leeds-Harrison, P.B., Walker, A., Bromilow, R.H., Brockie, D., Nicholls, P.H., Craven, A.C.C. and Lythgo, C.M.(2000) Processes affecting movement of pesticides to drainage in cracking clay soils Pesticide Outlook 11(5):174-177
Jarvis, N.J., Brown, C.D. and Granitza, E. (2000) Sources of error in model predictions of pesticide leaching: A case study using the MACRO model Agricultural Water Management 44(1-3):247-262
Gottesburen, B., Aden, K., Barlund, I., Brown, C.D., Dust, M., Gorlitz, G., Jarvis, N.J., Rekolainen, S. and Schafer, H. (2000) Comparison of pesticide leaching models: results using the Weiherbach data set Agricultural Water Management 44(1-3):153-181
Dubus, I.G., Hollis, J.M. and Brown, C.D. (2000) Pesticides in rainfall in Europe Environmental Pollution 110(2):331-344
Brown, C.D., Hollis, J.M., Bettinson, R.J. and Walker, A. (2000) Leaching of pesticides and bromide through lysimeters from five contrasting soils Pest Management Science 56(1):83-93
Beulke, S., Dubus, I.G., Brown, C.D. and Gottesburen B. (2000) Simulation of pesticide persistence in the field on the basis of laboratory data – A review Journal of Environmental Quality 29(5):1371-1379
Evans, S.P., Mayr, T.M., Hollis, J.M. and Brown, C.D. (1999) SWBCM: A soil water balance capacity model for environmental applications in the UK Ecological Modelling 121(1):17-49
Brown, C.D., Marshall, V.L., Deas, A., Carter, A.D., Arnold, D. and Jones, R.L. (1999) Investigation into the effect of tillage on solute transport to drains through a heavy clay soil, II. Interpretation using a radio-scanning technique, dye-tracing and modelling Soil Use and Management 15(2):94-100
Brown, C.D., Marshall, V.L., Carter, A.D., Walker, A., Arnold, D. and Jones, R.L. (1999) Investigation into the effect of tillage on solute transport to drains through a heavy clay soil, I. Lysimeter experiment, Soil Use and Management 15(2):84-93
Brown, C.D. and Hollis, J.M. (1996) SWAT - A semi-empirical model to predict concentrations of pesticides entering surface waters from agricultural land Pesticide Science 47(1):41-50
Brown, C.D., Baer, U., Gunther, P., Trevisan, M. and Walker, A. (1996) Ring test with the models LEACHP, PRZM-2 and VARLEACH: Variability between model users in prediction of pesticide leaching using a standard data set Pesticide Science 47(3):249-258
Brown, C.D., Hodgkinson, R.A., Rose, D.A., Syers, J.K. and Wilcockson, S.J. (1995) Movement of pesticides to surface waters from a heavy clay soil Pesticide Science 43(2):131-140