ABSTRACT
Herbicides constitute a large and diverse class of pesticides that, with a few exceptions, have very low mammalian toxicity and have received relatively little attention as environmental pollutants. Much of the work in the eld of ecotoxicology and much environmental risk assessment has focused on animals, especially vertebrate animals. There has perhaps been a tendency to overlook the importance of plants in the natural world. Most plants belong to the lowest trophic levels of ecosystems, and animals in higher trophic levels are absolutely dependent on them for their survival.
