The impacts on the environment and the ecotoxicological risks were assessed for five crops in Switzerland and three crop protection scenarios with low, mean and high treatment frequency. LCA and risk assessment were applied in parallel. A considerable reduction potential existed between the scenarios, particularly for the high treatment frequency. Only one or a few active ingredients dominated ecotoxicity impacts and risks. Avoiding these dominating active ingredients seems to be promising for mitigating ecotoxicological impacts. Furthermore, the study showed that it is necessary to consider all relevant environmental compartments and not to focus on water bodies alone. For aquatic ecotoxicity potentials assessed by LCA (USEtox method), pesticides contributed less than half in all scenarios, while heavy metals and other toxic substances were dominating.
