Ecotoxicity characterization of chemicals: Global recommendations and implementation in USEtox

Owsianiak, Mikołaj; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Posthuma, Leo; Saouter, Erwan; Vijver, Martina G.; Backhaus, Thomas; Douziech, Mélanie; Schlekat, Tamar; Fantke, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136807

Cited by 33 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…6,12,18,64 For instance, the USEtox model, one of the most used methods to evaluate ecotoxic impacts in LCA, has not addressed the effects of salt releases so far 12 and does not include the coastal seawater and brackish areas as environmental compartments. 19 Therefore, new approaches are necessary to include essential substances and these critical areas in the impact assessment models, and specific methodological choices must be implemented to develop CFs for essential elements in nonfreshwater environments.…”

Section: ■ Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that the log-logistic and the quadratic curves only converge at intermediate ranges of effects, so this approximation might not be accurate to calculate EFs based on HC10 or HC20, as new trends on ecotoxicity modeling suggest the use of EC10s or EC20s to model the factors. 19 Finally, the sign of each EF will be established depending on the direction of the change: increasing the salt concentration in the low range accounts for a negative EF LOW (impacts decline), and decreasing it accounts for a positive EF LOW (impacts increase), and vice versa for the high range.…”

Section: ■ Effect Factor For Salinity Variations In Aquatic Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6,9 They were only partially successful for several reasons, as ecotoxicity is currently based on the observation that the sensitivities of different species to a chemical follow a normal distribution, so increased exposure will generate increased impacts. 19 However, the impact of salinity is not only linked to concentration increases but also to concentration decreases (systems can become saltier or fresher), so an approach based on ecotoxic models would fail to describe these effects. Moreover, salt is not a pollutant or a toxic substance, but an essential element, so ecotoxic models might not be valid to describe its behavior.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The EF quantifies the fraction of living species that are going to potentially disappear in the aquatic ecosystem by the release of a certain chemical. 19,27,28 The available literature regarding salinity variation effects in aquatic ecosystems models these impacts according to ecotoxic methodologies, such as USEtox. 6,9 Under that approach, the EF is calculated employing a species-sensitivity distribution (SSD) curve, which represents the sensitivity of an entire ecosystem to a substance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, currently, it is considered that a substance provokes toxic effects if it enters an organism and causes poisoning, endocrine disruption, or other lethal effects. 19 This approach might be partially accurate for the effects of exposure to high salt concentrations, but it fails when defining the observed effects on ecosystems for decreases in salinity. This is the reason why the current applied approach (using ecotoxic methodologies) to model the impacts due to variations in essential substances (such as salts) needs to be reconsidered.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling the Impact of Salinity Variations on Aquatic Environments: Including Negative and Positive Effects in Life Cycle Assessment

Roibás-Rozas

Núñez

Mosquera-Corral

et al. 2022

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Salinity is changing in aquatic systems due to anthropogenic activities (like irrigation or dam management) and climate change. Although there are studies on the effects of salinity variations on individual species, little is known about the effects on overall ecosystems, these impacts being more uncertain in transitional waters such as estuaries or fiords. The few works that do address this topic have considered these impacts using ecotoxicity models. However, these models state that an increase in the concentration of a pollutant generates an increase in the impacts, disregarding the effects of water freshening. The present research work introduces a general framework to address the impacts of salinity variations, including emission-related positive effects. We validated this framework by applying it to an estuarine area in Galicia (northwestern Spain), where sharp drops in the salt concentration have caused mass mortalities of shellfish in recent decades. This research work addresses for the first time the potential effects on the environment derived from a decrease in the concentration of essential substances, where the effects of an emission can also generate positive impacts. Moreover, it is expected that the framework can also be applied to model the environmental impacts of other essential substances in life cycle assessment (LCA), such as metals and macronutrients.

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