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Abstract The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) convened a Pellston workshop in 2022 to examine how information on climate change could be better incorporated into the ecological risk assessment (ERA) process for chemicals as well as other environmental stressors. A major impetus for this workshop is that climate change can affect components of ecological risks in multiple direct and indirect ways, including the use patterns and environmental exposure pathways of chemical stressors such as pesticides, the toxicity of chemicals in receiving environments, and the vulnerability of species of concern related to habitat quality and use. This article explores a modeling approach for integrating climate model projections into the assessment of near- and long-term ecological risks, developed in collaboration with climate scientists. State-of-the-art global climate modeling and downscaling techniques may enable climate projections at scales appropriate for the study area. It is, however, also important to realize the limitations of individual global climate models and make use of climate model ensembles represented by statistical properties. Here, we present a probabilistic modeling approach aiming to combine projected climatic variables as well as the associated uncertainties from climate model ensembles in conjunction with ERA pathways. We draw upon three examples of ERA that utilized Bayesian networks for this purpose and that also represent methodological advancements for better prediction of future risks to ecosystems. We envision that the modeling approach developed from this international collaboration will contribute to better assessment and management of risks from chemical stressors in a changing climate. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:367–383. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).more » « less
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ABSTRACT In 2012, a regional risk assessment was published that applied Bayesian networks (BN) to the structure of the relative risk model. The original structure of the relative risk model (RRM) was published in the late 1990s and developed during the next decade. The RRM coupled with a Monte Carlo analysis was applied to calculating risk to a number of sites and a variety of questions. The sites included watersheds, terrestrial systems, and marine environments and included stressors such as nonindigenous species, effluents, pesticides, nutrients, and management options. However, it became apparent that there were limits to the original approach. In 2009, the relative risk model was transitioned into the structure of a BN. Bayesian networks had several clear advantages. First, BNs innately incorporated categories and, as in the case of the relative risk model, ranks to describe systems. Second, interactions between multiple stressors can be combined using several pathways and the conditional probability tables (CPT) to calculate outcomes. Entropy analysis was the method used to document model sensitivity. As with the RRM, the method has now been applied to a wide series of sites and questions, from forestry management, to invasive species, to disease, the interaction of ecological and human health endpoints, the flows of large rivers, and now the efficacy and risks of synthetic biology. The application of both methods have pointed to the incompleteness of the fields of environmental chemistry, toxicology, and risk assessment. The low frequency of exposure‐response experiments and proper analysis have limited the available outputs for building appropriate CPTs. Interactions between multiple chemicals, landscape characteristics, population dynamics and community structure have been poorly characterized even for critical environments. A better strategy might have been to first look at the requirements of modern risk assessment approaches and then set research priorities.Integr Environ Assess Manag2021;17:79–94. © 2020 SETACmore » « less
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