Minnesota Pesticide Applicator Category A Practice Test

Vegetative buffers are strips of vegetation placed along field edges to slow and filter runoff water. Their main function is to trap pesticides that would otherwise move from fields into surface water. The plants and soil in these buffers slow the flow, promote infiltration, and help sorb, degrade, or uptake pesticide residues, reducing their transport to streams and lakes. This protection of water quality is why the option describing trapping pesticides in runoff is the best fit. The other ideas—supplying nutrients to weeds, increasing evaporation, or attracting pests—do not reflect the purpose of buffers, which is to reduce pesticide movement into water rather than to influence weeds, evaporation, or pest attraction.