The Experts below are selected from a list of 360 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Zijian Wang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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a tiered Ecological Risk Assessment of three chlorophenols in chinese surface waters
Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2012Co-Authors: Yiping Xu, Zijian Wang, John P Giesy, Kristine L RichardsonAbstract:Introduction The Ecological Risks posed by three chlorophenols (CPs), 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), 2,4,6trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP), and pentachlorophenol (PCP) in Chinese surface waters were assessed. Materials and methods This was achieved by applying a tiered Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) approach ranging from deterministic methods to probabilistic options to measured concentrations of CPs in surface water of seven major watersheds and three drainage regions in China and the chronic toxicity data for indigenous Chinese species. Results and discussion The results show that the Risks of three chlorophenols are ranked PCP>2,4-DCP≈2,4,6-TCP. PCP posed little Ecological Risk while 2,4-DCP and 2,4,6TCP posed negligible or de minimis Risk in Chinese surface water. However, the Risks varied with different river basins, for example, PCP posed some Ecological Risk in the Yangtze, Huaihe, and Pearl Rivers. The magnitude of 2,4DCP and 2,4,6-TCP pollution in North China was more serious than that in South China. Conclusion The probabilistic Risk Assessment approach, which can provide more information for Risk managers
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screening level Ecological Risk Assessment for phenols in surface water of the taihu lake
Chemosphere, 2010Co-Authors: Wenjue Zhong, Donghong Wang, Qian Luo, Bingyi Wang, Xiaoquan Shan, Zijian WangAbstract:A number of approaches have been proposed for screening level Ecological Risk Assessment. In this paper, we first established a mass spectrum library including 50 phenols using retention time locking (RTL) technology and deconvolution reporting software (DRS). Distribution of phenols in surface water of the Taihu Lake was screened. Among the 22 identified phenols, 14 phenols were quantified. The concentrations of total phenols ranged 675.2-3346.1 ng L(-1). The distributions of Ecological effect quotients (EEQs) of 14 phenols were characterized in terms of the exposure concentration distributions (ECDs) and species sensitivity distributions (SSDs). Those phenols with EEQs exceeding the threshold proposed by Water Environment Research Foundation of Alexandria were selected as priorities. As a result, 2-nitrophenol (2-NP), p-chloro-m-xylenol (PCMX) and pyrocatechol were determined as potential Ecological Risk stressors in surface water of the Taihu Lake. Results of the present study suggested that the proposed approach is feasible for the screening level Ecological Risk Assessment. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Glenn W. Suter - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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ecosystem services as Assessment endpoints for Ecological Risk Assessment
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2016Co-Authors: Wayne R Munns, Glenn W. Suter, Anne W Rea, Lawrence Martin, Lynne Blakehedges, Tanja Crk, Christine Davis, Gina Ferreira, Steve Jordan, Michele MahoneyAbstract:Ecosystem services are defined as the outputs of Ecological processes that contribute to human welfare or have the potential to do so in the future. Those outputs include food and drinking water, clean air and water, and pollinated crops. The need to protect the services provided by natural systems has been recognized previously, but ecosystem services have not been formally incorporated into Ecological Risk Assessment practice in a general way in the United States. Endpoints used conventionally in Ecological Risk Assessment, derived directly from the state of the ecosystem (e.g., biophysical structure and processes), and endpoints based on ecosystem services serve different purposes. Conventional endpoints are Ecologically important and susceptible entities and attributes that are protected under US laws and regulations. Ecosystem service endpoints are a conceptual and analytical step beyond conventional endpoints and are intended to complement conventional endpoints by linking and extending endpoints to goods and services with more obvious benefit to humans. Conventional endpoints can be related to ecosystem services even when the latter are not considered explicitly during problem formulation. To advance the use of ecosystem service endpoints in Ecological Risk Assessment, the US Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Assessment Forum has added generic endpoints based on ecosystem services (ES-GEAE) to the original 2003 set of generic Ecological Assessment endpoints (GEAEs). Like conventional GEAEs, ES-GEAEs are defined by an entity and an attribute. Also like conventional GEAEs, ES-GEAEs are broadly described and will need to be made specific when applied to individual Assessments. Adoption of ecosystem services as a type of Assessment endpoint is intended to improve the value of Risk Assessment to environmental decision making, linking Ecological Risk to human well-being, and providing an improved means of communicating those Risks. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2016;12:522-528. Published 2015 SETAC. This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the USA.
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enhancing the Ecological Risk Assessment process
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2008Co-Authors: Virginia H Dale, Gregory R Biddinger, Timothy Thompson, Thomas Armitage, Judith L Meyer, Richelle M Allenking, James T Oris, Michael C Newman, Glenn W. Suter, Allen G BurtonAbstract:The Ecological Processes and Effects Committee of the US Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board conducted a self-initiated study and convened a public workshop to characterize the state of the Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA), with a view toward advancing the science and application of the process. That survey and analysis of ERA in decision making shows that such Assessments have been most effective when clear management goals were included in the problem formulation; translated into information needs; and developed in collaboration with decision makers, assessors, scientists, and stakeholders. This process is best facilitated when Risk managers, Risk assessors, and stakeholders are engaged in an ongoing dialogue about problem formulation. Identification and acknowledgment of uncertainties that have the potential to profoundly affect the results and outcome of Risk Assessments also improves Assessment effectiveness. Thus we suggest 1) thorough peer review of ERAs be conducted at the problem formulation stage and 2) the predictive power of Risk-based decision making be expanded to reduce uncertainties through analytical and methodological approaches like life cycle analysis. Risk Assessment and monitoring programs need better integration to reduce uncertainty and to evaluate Risk management decision outcomes. Postdecision audit programs should be initiated to evaluate the environmental outcomes of Risk-based decisions. In addition, a process should be developed to demonstrate how monitoring data can be used to reduce uncertainties. Ecological Risk Assessments should include the effects of chemical and nonchemical stressors at multiple levels of biological organization and spatial scale, and the extent and resolution of the pertinent scales and levels of organization should be explicitly considered during problem formulation. An approach to interpreting lines of evidence and weight of evidence is critically needed for complex Assessments, and it would be useful to develop case studies and/or standards of practice for interpreting lines of evidence. In addition, tools for cumulative Risk Assessment should be developed because contaminants are often released into stressed environments.
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Ecological Risk Assessment in the united states environmental protection agency a historical overview
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2008Co-Authors: Glenn W. SuterAbstract:ABSTRACT EDITOR'S NOTE: This is 1 of 4 papers from the US Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board's Ecological Processes and Effects Committee workshop on the current and future practice of Ecological Risk Assessment. The workshop was held in Washington, DC in February 2006. Risk Assessment originated with the insurance industry and spread to the estimation of Risks to people and property in other contexts, including the regulation of environmental contamination. Ecological Assessment became an important component of environmental management in the United States with the legal mandate for environmental impact Assessment in 1970. Risk Assessment and Ecological Assessment merged in the 1980s to form Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA). Since then, ERA has been institutionalized with the development of the US Environmental Protection Agency's (hereafter, USEPA or Agency) framework and guidance documents. Ecological Risk Assessment has been adapted by the Agency's program offices to fit their lega...
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Ecological Risk Assessment
Technometrics, 2006Co-Authors: Glenn W. SuterAbstract:Introduction to Ecological Risk Assessment: Defining the Field (G. Suter, II). Assessment Concepts (G. Suter, II and L. Barnthouse). Predictive Risk Assessment of Chemicals (G. Suter, II). Exposure Assessment: Environmental Chemistry (T. Mill). Mathematical Models of Transport and Fate (D. Mackay and S. Paterson). Exposure (G. Suter, II). Effects Assessment: Organism Level Effects (G. Suter, II). Population Level Effects (L. Barnthouse). Ecosystem Level Effects (G. Suter, II and S. Bartell). Unconventional Ecological Risk Assessment: Retrospective Ecological Risk Assessment (G. Suter, II). Regional Risk Assessment (G. Suter, II). Environmental Surveillance (G. Suter, II). Exotic Organisms (G. Suter, II). References. Glossary. Latin and Common Names of Species Used in the Text. Index.
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applicability of indicator monitoring to Ecological Risk Assessment
Ecological Indicators, 2001Co-Authors: Glenn W. SuterAbstract:Abstract Although Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) and environmental monitoring would seem to be potentially complimentary activities, they have been disjunct in practice. This is because of differences in goals and products. Environmental monitoring determines status and trends in indicators to determine whether the environment is improving. ERA estimates effects of stressors on endpoint attributes to support decision making. Indicators are, by definition, indicative of some unmeasured condition. Assessment endpoints are valued properties of the environment that are susceptible to stressors of concern. Indicators are justified by the logic of the monitoring program, which may be self-referential. Assessment endpoints are justified by their potential susceptibility and by environmental policies and public values. Indicators are often expressed in terms of indices or scores that obscure the actual condition of the environment. Because Assessment endpoints must be clear to decision makers and the public, they require real units of actual environmental properties. Monitoring programs are peripherally concerned about causal relationships, while Risk Assessment is devoted to elucidating causal relationships. As a result, Risk Assessments may use the results of monitoring studies, but only after disaggregating the indicators to their components and choosing those that are appropriate. Monitoring programs could be more useful if they used a Risk-based approach to address important problems rather than simply tracking indicators.
Valery E. Forbes - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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temperature dependence of population responses to competition and metabolic stress an agent based model to inform Ecological Risk Assessment in a changing climate
Science of The Total Environment, 2021Co-Authors: Chiara Accolla, Valery E. ForbesAbstract:Abstract Understanding the interactions among multiple stressors is a crucial issue for Ecological Risk Assessment and ecosystem management. However, it is often impractical, or impossible, to collect empirical data concerning all the interactions at any scale because the type of interaction differs across species and levels of biological organization. We applied an agent-based model to simulate the effects of a hypothetical chemical stressor and inter-specific competition (both alone and together) on greenback cutthroat trout (GCT), a listed species under the US Endangered Species Act, in two temperature scenarios. The trout life cycle is modeled using the Dynamic Energy Budget theory. The chemical stressor is represented by a reduction in ingestion efficiency, and competition is implemented by introducing a population of brown trout. Results show that chemical exposure is the major stressor in the colder temperature scenario, whereas competition mostly affected the GCT population in the warmer environment. Moreover, the effects of the stressors at the individual level were not predictive of the type of interactions between stressors (additive, antagonistic, synergistic) at the population level, which differed between the two-temperature scenarios. We conclude that mechanistic models can help to identify generalities about interactions among environmental and stressor properties, create in-silico experiments to provide different scenarios for conservation purposes, and explore multiple-exposure consequences at higher levels of biological organization. In this way they can provide useful tools for improving Ecological Risk Assessment and informing management decisions.
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next generation Ecological Risk Assessment predicting Risk from molecular initiation to ecosystem service delivery
Environment International, 2016Co-Authors: Valery E. Forbes, Nika GalicAbstract:Ecological Risk Assessment is the process of evaluating how likely it is that the environment may be impacted as the result of exposure to one or more chemicals and/or other stressors. It is not playing as large a role in environmental management decisions as it should be. A core challenge is that Risk Assessments often do not relate directly or transparently to protection goals. There have been exciting developments in in vitro testing and high-throughput systems that measure responses to chemicals at molecular and biochemical levels of organization, but the linkage between such responses and impacts of regulatory significance - whole organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems - are not easily predictable. This article describes some recent developments that are directed at bridging this gap and providing more predictive models that can make robust links between what we typically measure in Risk Assessments and what we aim to protect.
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use of the ecosystem services concept in Ecological Risk Assessment of chemicals
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2013Co-Authors: Valery E. Forbes, P CalowAbstract:The reason for expressing Ecological protection goals in terms of ecosystem services is to make a connection between ecosystems and what people get out of them in terms of marketed goods and nonmarketed welfare. Here our focus will be on how the ecosystem services framework is and can be applied to the Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) of chemicals. We provide 2 contrasting examples of how the ecosystem services framework is currently being applied in regulatory Risk Assessment, and we discuss the challenges and knowledge gaps that need to be addressed if such a framework is to substantially improve ERAs and their ability to inform management decisions. We make the point that formulating protection goals in terms of ecosystem services only makes sense if they can be used in managing environmental impacts and if they are useful in informing the Risk Assessments behind these. Ecosystem services can make a contribution to management by connecting ecosystem structure and process to what is valued, and analyzing Risk in this context is a way of making Risk Assessment more policy- and value-relevant. Using an ecosystem services framework to its fullest potential to support ERA will require the successful development of a suite of coupled Valuation Methods, Ecological Production Functions, and Mechanistic Effect Models that will require the establishment of strong multidisciplinary collaborations among ecologists, computer scientists, social scientists, and possibly others. In addition, buy-in from environmental decision makers and other stakeholders will be crucial. Some progress is being made on the research front, and the implementation of new legislation is providing incentives for developing Risk Assessment outputs that are much more directly related to environmental protection goals than those used currently. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 269–275. © 2012 SETAC
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adding value to Ecological Risk Assessment with population modeling
Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, 2011Co-Authors: Valery E. Forbes, P Calow, Volker Grimm, Takehiko I Hayashi, Tjalling Jager, Agnete Krabbe Katholm, Annemette Palmqvist, Rob Pastorok, Dan Salvito, Richard M SiblyAbstract:Current measures used to estimate the Risks of toxic chemicals are not relevant to the goals of the environmental protection process, and thus Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) is not used as extensively as it should be as a basis for cost-effective management of environmental resources. Appropriate population models can provide a powerful basis for expressing Ecological Risks that better inform the environmental management process and thus that are more likely to be used by managers. Here we provide at least five reasons why population modeling should play an important role in bridging the gap between what we measure and what we want to protect. We then describe six actions needed for its implementation into management-relevant ERA.
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Population growth rate as a basis for Ecological Risk Assessment of toxic chemicals.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 2002Co-Authors: Valery E. Forbes, Peter CalowAbstract:Assessing the Ecological Risks of toxic chemicals is most often based on individual-level responses such as survival, reproduction or growth. Such an approach raises the following questions with regard to translating these measured effects into likely impacts on natural populations. (i) To what extent do individual-level variables underestimate or overestimate population-level responses? (ii) How do toxicant-caused changes in individual-level variables translate into changes in population dynamics for species with different life cycles? (iii) To what extent are these relationships complicated by population-density effects? These issues go to the heart of the Ecological relevance of ecotoxicology and we have addressed them using the population growth rate as an integrating concept. Our analysis indicates that although the most sensitive individual-level variables are likely to be equally or more sensitive to increasing concentrations of toxic chemicals than population growth rate, they are difficult to identify a priori and, even if they could be identified, integrating impacts on key life-cycle variables via population growth rate analysis is nevertheless a more robust approach for assessing the Ecological Risks of chemicals. Populations living under density-dependent control may respond differently to toxic chemicals than exponentially growing populations, and greater care needs to be given to incorporating realistic density conditions (either experimentally or by simulation) into ecotoxicological test designs. It is impractical to expect full life-table studies, which record changes in survival, fecundity and development at defined intervals through the life cycle of organisms under specified conditions, for all relevant species, so we argue that population growth rate analysis should be used to provide guidance for a more pragmatic and Ecologically sound approach to Ecological Risk Assessment.
Wenjue Zhong - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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screening level Ecological Risk Assessment for phenols in surface water of the taihu lake
Chemosphere, 2010Co-Authors: Wenjue Zhong, Donghong Wang, Qian Luo, Bingyi Wang, Xiaoquan Shan, Zijian WangAbstract:A number of approaches have been proposed for screening level Ecological Risk Assessment. In this paper, we first established a mass spectrum library including 50 phenols using retention time locking (RTL) technology and deconvolution reporting software (DRS). Distribution of phenols in surface water of the Taihu Lake was screened. Among the 22 identified phenols, 14 phenols were quantified. The concentrations of total phenols ranged 675.2-3346.1 ng L(-1). The distributions of Ecological effect quotients (EEQs) of 14 phenols were characterized in terms of the exposure concentration distributions (ECDs) and species sensitivity distributions (SSDs). Those phenols with EEQs exceeding the threshold proposed by Water Environment Research Foundation of Alexandria were selected as priorities. As a result, 2-nitrophenol (2-NP), p-chloro-m-xylenol (PCMX) and pyrocatechol were determined as potential Ecological Risk stressors in surface water of the Taihu Lake. Results of the present study suggested that the proposed approach is feasible for the screening level Ecological Risk Assessment. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
L Zeng - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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an Ecological Risk Assessment model for a pulsed contaminant emission into a wetland channel flow
Ecological Modelling, 2010Co-Authors: G Q Chen, L Zeng, Zi WuAbstract:As a continuation of the modelling on Ecological degradation and hydraulic dispersion of pollutant emission into an idealized two-dimensional free-surface wetland flow (Zeng, L., Chen, G.Q., 2009b. Ecological degradation and hydraulic dispersion of contaminant in wetland. Ecol. Model., doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.10.024), an Ecological Risk Assessment model for the typical case of a pulsed contaminant emission into a realistic three-dimensional wetland channel flow is presented in this paper for the fate of cross-sectional mean concentration under environmental dispersion. An environmental dispersion model for the mean concentration is devised as an extension of Taylor’s classical analysis on dispersion in fluid flows. The velocity distribution and the environmental dispersivity in the fully developed steady flow through the wetland is found and illustrated with limiting cases covering various known solutions for the porous media flow between parallel plates, flow in a shallow wetland, sweeping flow in a densely vegetated wetland, and single phase flow in a channel. Obtained by Aris’s method of moments, the environmental dispersivity is shown characterized with multi-scale asymptotic time variations with stem dominated stage, transitional stage, and width–depth-stem dominated stage. Based on the solution for the evolution of contaminant cloud in the wetland channel flow, critical length and duration of the contaminant cloud with concentration beyond given environmental standard level are concretely illustrated for typical pollutant constituents in wastewater emission. Under the same emission intensity and environmental standard, the duration of contaminant cloud in the wetland channel is revealed shorter than that in a free surface wetland, due to the lateral effect.
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an Ecological Risk Assessment model for a pulsed contaminant emission into a wetland channel flow
Ecological Modelling, 2010Co-Authors: G Q Chen, L ZengAbstract:Abstract As a continuation of the modelling on Ecological degradation and hydraulic dispersion of pollutant emission into an idealized two-dimensional free-surface wetland flow (Zeng, L., Chen, G.Q., 2009b. Ecological degradation and hydraulic dispersion of contaminant in wetland. Ecol. Model., doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.10.024), an Ecological Risk Assessment model for the typical case of a pulsed contaminant emission into a realistic three-dimensional wetland channel flow is presented in this paper for the fate of cross-sectional mean concentration under environmental dispersion. An environmental dispersion model for the mean concentration is devised as an extension of Taylor’s classical analysis on dispersion in fluid flows. The velocity distribution and the environmental dispersivity in the fully developed steady flow through the wetland is found and illustrated with limiting cases covering various known solutions for the porous media flow between parallel plates, flow in a shallow wetland, sweeping flow in a densely vegetated wetland, and single phase flow in a channel. Obtained by Aris’s method of moments, the environmental dispersivity is shown characterized with multi-scale asymptotic time variations with stem dominated stage, transitional stage, and width–depth-stem dominated stage. Based on the solution for the evolution of contaminant cloud in the wetland channel flow, critical length and duration of the contaminant cloud with concentration beyond given environmental standard level are concretely illustrated for typical pollutant constituents in wastewater emission. Under the same emission intensity and environmental standard, the duration of contaminant cloud in the wetland channel is revealed shorter than that in a free surface wetland, due to the lateral effect.
