Long-Term Monitoring of Field Trial Sites with Genetically Modified Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Fifteen Years Persistence to Date but No Spatial Dispersion

Oilseed rape is known to persist in arable fields because of its ability to develop secondary seed dormancy in certain agronomic and environmental conditions. If conditions change, rapeseeds are able to germinate up to 10 years later to build volunteers in ensuing crops. Extrapolations of experimental data acted on the assumption of persistence periods for more than 20 years after last harvest of rapeseed. Genetically-modified oilseed rape—cultivated widely in Northern America since 1996—is assumed not to differ from its conventional form in this property. Here, experimental data are reported from official monitoring activities that verify these assumptions. At two former field trial sites in Saxony-Anhalt genetically-modified herbicide-resistant oilseed rape volunteers are found up to fifteen years after harvest. Nevertheless, spatial dispersion or establishment of GM plants outside of the field sites was not observed within this period.