Ecological Modeling in Risk Assessment: Chemical Effects on Populations, Ecosystems and Landscapes

328pp  ISBN 1566705746      £69.00

• Provides a comprehensive review of the use of ecological effects models in chemical risk assessment
• Includes general principles on how to select specific models for application to any given risk assessment
• Presents descriptions and evaluations of various models for application to populations, ecosystems, and landscape-scale problems
• Serves as a guide to ecological effects models for conducting site-specific ecological risk assessments and in supporting applications for new chemicals or modified uses

Toxic chemicals can exert effects on all levels of the biological hierarchy, from cells to organs to organisms to populations to entire ecosystems. However, most risk assessment models express their results in terms of effects on individual organisms, without corresponding information on how populations, groups of species, or whole ecosystems may respond to chemical stressors. Ecological Modeling in Risk Assessment: Chemical Effects on Populations, Ecosystems, and Landscapes takes a new approach by compiling and evaluating models that can be used in assessing risk at the population, ecosystem, and landscape levels.

The authors give an overview of the current process of ecological risk assessment for toxic chemicals and of how modeling of populations, ecosystems, and landscapes could improve the status quo. They present a classification of ecological models and explain the differences between population, ecosystem, landscape, and toxicity-extrapolation models. The authors describe the model evaluation process and define evaluation criteria. Finally, the results of the model evaluations are presented in a concise format with recommendations on modeling approaches to use now and develop further.

The authors present and evaluate various models on the basis of their realism and complexity, prediction of relevant assessment endpoints, treatment of uncertainty, regulatory acceptance, resource efficiency, and other criteria. They provide models that will improve the ecological relevance of risk assessments and make data collection more cost-effective. Ecological Modeling in Risk Assessment serves as a reference for selecting and applying the best models when performing a risk assessment.

Contents

• Preface, S.E. Jorgensen and R.A. Pastorok
• Introduction, R.A. Pastorok
• Methods, R.A. Pastorok and H.R. Akçakaya
• Results of the Evaluation of Ecological Models: Introduction, R.A. Pastorok
• Population Models-Scalar Abundance, S. Ferson
• Population Models-Life History, S. Carroll
• Population Models-Individual-Based, H.M. Regan
• Population Models-Metapopulations, H.R. Akçakaya and H. M. Regan
• Ecosystem Models-Food Webs, S. Carroll
• Ecosystem Models-Aquatic, S.M. Bartell
• Ecosystem Models-Terrestrial, C.E. Mackay and R.A. Pastorok
• Landscape Models-Aquatic and Terrestrial, C.E. Mackay and R.A. Pastorok
• Toxicity-Extrapolation Models, J.A. Colton
• Profiles of Selected Models, R.A. Pastorok
• Enhancing the Use of Ecological Models in Environmental Decision-Making, L.R. Ginzburg and H. R. Akçakaya
• Conclusions and Recommendations, R.A. Pastorok and L.R. Ginzburg
• Summary, R.A. Pastorok and H.R. Akçakaya
• References
• Appendix A: Fish Population Modeling: Data Needs and Case Study, S.J. Pauwels
• Appendix B: Classification Systems, K.V. Root
• Appendix C: Results of the Initial Screening of Ecological Models, Model Analysis Team