Mean Species Abundance as a Measure of Ecotoxicological Risk.

ABSTRACT: Chemical pollution of surface waters is considered an important driver for recent declines in biodiversity. Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) are commonly used to evaluate the ecological risks of chemical exposure, accounting for variation in interspecies sensitivity. However, SSDs do not reflect the effects of chemical exposure on species abundance, considered an important endpoint in biological conservation. Although complex population modeling approaches lack practical applicability when it comes to the routine practice of lower tier chemical risk assessment, in the present study we show how information from widely available laboratory toxicity tests can be used to derive the change in mean species abundance (MSA) as a function of chemical exposure. These exposure-response MSA re

SUBMITTER: Hoeks S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7693057 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature