Endpoints for regional ecological risk assessments

Suter, Glenn

doi:10.1007/bf02394015

Cited by 172 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The first step in a risk assessment is a decision about what needs protecting from harm; this step derives explicit and unambiguous targets for protection, called assessment endpoints, from the management goals of legislation or policy (Suter, 1990). The second step is an assessment of how the proposed action, such as the cultivation of GM crops, may cause harm; this step is often referred to as the development of risk hypotheses (e.g., Patton, 1998).…”

Section: The Scientific Methods and Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem formulation and hypothesis testing for environmental risk assessments of genetically modified crops

Raybould

2006

Environ. Biosafety Res.

124

137

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Environmental risk assessments can provide high confidence of minimal risk by testing theories, "risk hypotheses", that predict the likelihood of unacceptable harmful events. The creation of risk hypotheses and a plan to test them is called problem formulation. Effective problem formulation seeks to maximize the possibility of detecting effects that indicate potential risk; if such effects are not detected, minimal risk is indicated with high confidence. Two important implications are that artificial test conditions can increase confidence, whereas prescriptive data requirements can reduce confidence (increase uncertainty) if they constrain problem formulation. Poor problem formulation can increase environmental risk because it leads to the collection of superfluous data that may delay or prevent the introduction of environmentally beneficial products.

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Section: The Scientific Methods and Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem formulation and hypothesis testing for environmental risk assessments of genetically modified crops

Raybould

2006

Environ. Biosafety Res.

124

137

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“…In a larger sense, biological responses to stress have been explored at virtually all levels, including individual (Selye 1973), population (Emlen andPikitch 1989, Underwood 1989), community (Gray 1989), ecosystem (Rapport et al 1985, Schindler 1987, Rapport 1989) and landscape (Peterson et al 1987, Hunsaker et al 1989, Suter 1990). Community structure changes in three ways in response to stress (Gray 1989): reduction in diversity, retrogression to dominance by opportunist species, and reduction in mean size.…”

Section: The Future Of Biological Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, toxicity-based criteria are not adequate as early warning devices for detection of degradation. Finally, poorly understood but important biological mechanisms and effects are not incorporated into the standard-setting process (Suter 1990). Single-species toxicity testing may in selected situations be well informed and decisive, but in many circumstances its decisiveness may be misleading and even dangerous for the resource.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Integrity: A Long‐Neglected Aspect of Water Resource Management

Karr¹

1991

Ecological Applications

1,283

742

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Abstract. Water of sufficient quality and quantity is critical to all life. Increasing human population and growth of technology require human society to devote more and more attention to protection of adequate supplies of water. Although perception of biological degradation stimulated current state and federal legislation on the quality of water resources that biological focus was lost in the search for easily measured physical and chemical surrogates. The "fishable and swimmable" goal ofthe Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (PL 92-500) and its charge to "restore and maintain" biotic integrity illustrate that law's biological underpinning. Further, the need for operational definitions of terms like "biological integrity" and "unreasonable degradation" and for ecologically sound tools to measure divergence from societal goals have increased interest in biological monitoring. Assessment of water resource quality by sampling biological communities in the field (ambient biological monitoring) is a promising approach that requires expanded use of ecological expe~ise. One such approach, the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI), provides a broadly based, multi parameter tool for the assessment of biotic integrity in running waters. IBI based on fish community attributes has now been applied widely in North America. The success of IBI has stimulated the development of similar approaches using other aquatic taxa. Expanded use of ecological expertise in ambient biological monitoring is essential to the protection of water resources. Ecologists have the expertise to contribute significantly to those programs.

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“…Furthermore, bio-indicators for regional risk assessments must be related to the long-term survival of ecosystems, i.e., for example, to the death, immobilisation, growth, abundance and reproductive impairment of the local ecosystems [39]. The bio-indicator should also be a measurement for which there is an existing time series of data so that background levels, variability and trends can be estimated [40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the Exposure of Coral Reefs and Seagrass Meadows to Land-Sourced Contaminants in River Flood Plumes of the Great Barrier Reef: Validating a Simple Satellite Risk Framework with Environmental Data

et al. 2016

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River runoff and associated flood plumes (hereafter river plumes) are a major source of land-sourced contaminants to the marine environment, and are a significant threat to coastal and marine ecosystems worldwide. Remote sensing monitoring products have been developed to map the spatial extent, composition and frequency of occurrence of river plumes in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. There is, however, a need to incorporate these monitoring products into Risk Assessment Frameworks as management decision tools. A simple Satellite Risk Framework has been recently proposed to generate maps of potential risk to seagrass and coral reef ecosystems in the GBR focusing on the Austral tropical wet season. This framework was based on a "magnitudeˆlikelihood" risk management approach and GBR plume water types mapped from satellite imagery. The GBR plume water types (so called "Primary" for the inshore plume waters, "Secondary" for the midshelf-plume waters and "Tertiary" for the offshore plume waters) represent distinct concentrations and combinations of land-sourced and marine contaminants. The current study aimed to test and refine the methods of the Satellite Risk Framework. It compared predicted pollutant concentrations in plume water types (multi-annual average from 2005-2014) to published ecological thresholds, and combined this information with similarly long-term measures of seagrass and coral ecosystem health. The Satellite Risk Framework and newly-introduced multi-annual risk scores were successful in demonstrating where water conditions were, on average, correlated to adverse biological responses. Seagrass meadow abundance (multi-annual change in % cover) was negatively correlated to the multi-annual risk score at the site level (R 2 = 0.47, p < 0.05). Relationships between multi-annual risk scores and multi-annual changes in proportional macroalgae cover (as an index for coral reef health) were more complex (R 2 = 0.04, p > 0.05), though reefs incurring higher risk scores showed relatively higher proportional macroalgae cover. Multi-annual risk score thresholds associated with loss of seagrass cover were defined, with lower risk scores (ď0.2) associated with a gain or little loss in seagrass cover (gain/´12%), medium risk scores (0.2-0.4) associated with moderate loss (´12/´30%) and higher risk scores (>0.4) with the greatest loss in cover (>´30%). These thresholds were used to generate an intermediate river plume risk map specifically for seagrass meadows of the GBR. An intermediate river plume risk map for coral reefs was also developed by considering a multi-annual risk score threshold of 0.2-above which a higher proportion of macroalgae within the algal communities can be expected. These findings contribute to a long-term and adaptive approach to set relevant risk framework and thresholds for adverse biological responses in the GBR. The ecological thresholds and risk scores used in this study will be refined and validated through ongoing monitoring and assessment. As uncertainties are red...

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Endpoints for regional ecological risk assessments

Cited by 172 publications

References 15 publications

Problem formulation and hypothesis testing for environmental risk assessments of genetically modified crops

Problem formulation and hypothesis testing for environmental risk assessments of genetically modified crops

Biological Integrity: A Long‐Neglected Aspect of Water Resource Management

Estimating the Exposure of Coral Reefs and Seagrass Meadows to Land-Sourced Contaminants in River Flood Plumes of the Great Barrier Reef: Validating a Simple Satellite Risk Framework with Environmental Data

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