| Literature DB >> 32786097 |
Selwyn Hoeks1, Mark A J Huijbregts1, Mélanie Douziech2, A Jan Hendriks1, Rik Oldenkamp1,3,4.
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 relationships combine insights into intraspecies exposure-response relationships and population growth theory. We showcase the practical applicability of our method for cadmium, copper, and zinc, and include a quantification of the associated statistical uncertainty. For all 3 metals, we found that concentrations hazardous for 5% of the species (HC5 s) based on MSA relationships are systematically higher than SSD-based HC5 values. Our proposed framework can be useful to derive abundance-based ecological protective criteria for chemical exposure, and creates the opportunity to assess abundance impacts of chemical exposure in the context of various other anthropogenic stressors. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:2304-2313.Entities:
Keywords: Biodiversity metric; Ecotoxicity; Exposure-response relationship; Intraspecies variation; Species sensitivity distribution
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Year: 2020 PMID: 32786097 PMCID: PMC7693057 DOI: 10.1002/etc.4850
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Environ Toxicol Chem ISSN: 0730-7268 Impact factor: 3.742
Figure 1Workflow to compute deterministic mean species abundance relationships (MSARs). The entire process can be separated into 4 consecutive steps. (A) A 2‐parameter log‐logistic model (Equation 1) is fitted to exposure–response data for survival and reproduction, thereby obtaining the corresponding exposure–response parameters (median lethal or effect concentration (LC50 or EC50) and or ). (B) These parameters are combined with the undisturbed lifetime fecundity (R 0; Equation 4), to create species‐specific exposure–abundance curves. (C) Exposure–response data on abundance or population growth are fitted to Equation 5, resulting in their respective continuous exposure–abundance curves. (D) All exposure–abundance relationships are combined into one MSAR (Equation 6).
Figure 2Species‐specific exposure–abundance curves for (A) cadmium (Cd), (B) copper (Cu), and (C) zinc (Zn).
Figure 3Mean species abundance relationship (MSAR) for (A) cadmium (Cd), (B) copper (Cu), and (C) zinc (Zn). Black solid lines represent the deterministic MSAR, computed directly from the exposure–abundance relationships shown in Figure 2. The gray areas surrounding the MSAR show 95% confidence intervals of the simulated data (1000 iterations). Red dashed lines show the log‐logistic models fitted through the deterministic MSAR.
Figure 4Mean species abundance (MSA) loss for (A) cadmium (Cd), (B) copper (Cu), and (C) zinc (Zn). The red dashed lines indicate the losses in MSA determined by 1 – MSA Relationship (MSAR; log‐logistic fit). The red areas surrounding the MSAR show the 95% confidence intervals of the simulated data (1000 iterations). The blue solid lines represent the MSA loss determined from solely reproduction (i.e., excluding survival). The black dotted lines represent the MSA loss for both reproduction and survival but excluding all intraspecies variation (i.e., ignoring the exposure–response slopes).
Concentration hazardous for 5% of the species (HC5) values extracted from the exposure–mean species abundance (MSA) relationships and the 10% effect concentration (EC10)‐based species sensitivity distribution (SSD) curves for cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) based on the compiled data set presented in the Supplemental Data, Tables S1 to S3a
| Metal | MSAR HC5 (μg/L) | SSD HC5‐EC10 (μg/L) | Regulatory SSD NOEC‐HC5 (μg/L) | Regulatory reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cd | 0.89 (0.34–2.61) | 0.10 (0.05–2.11) | 0.38 | European Chemicals Bureau |
| Cu | 9.42 (2.24–19.3) | 1.31 (0.31–7.71) | 7.30 | European Chemicals Agency |
| Zn | 55.1 (11.1–69.9) | 15.8 (6.37–51.2) | 15.6 | European Chemicals Bureau |
The 95% confidence intervals around the HC5 are in parentheses. For comparison, regulatory NOEC‐HC5 values are also presented. All values were extracted from log‐logistic fits though the corresponding data. MSAR = MSA relationship; NOEC = no‐observed‐effect concentration.