New ideas on criteria for identification and assessing environmental hazards of chemical pollutants

This paper formulated a fundamentally new solution to the problem of selecting criteria for identification and assessing environmental hazards of chemical pollutants, toxicants. The paper explains why the currently accepted set of criteria is non-efficient and leads to mistakes.

 

Abstract

The currently accepted system of criteria of evaluating ecological hazards from man-made chemicals is vulnerable to criticism. In this paper, a fundamentally new concept of a more objective system of criteria for evaluating the ecological hazard from man-made impact is proposed. The author suggested to assess man-made impacts (including effects of pollutants and xenobiotics) on biota according to the following four levels of disturbance in biological and ecological systems: (1) the level of individual and population responses; (2) the level of aggregated responses; (3) the level of stability and integrity of the ecosystem; (4) the level of contributions of the ecosystem into biospheric processes. An example is given of how to apply the proposed system of criteria to the analysis of concrete experimental data. To exemplify the efficiency of the proposed system of criteria, it is shown how to use it to analyze new data on effects of a non-ionic surfactant on water filtering by bivalves. It is concluded that the proposed system of criteria will be helpful in better assessing ecological hazards from anthropogenic effects on biota including effects of man-made chemicals polluting ecosystems.

 

 

 

Reference

Ostroumov S.A. Criteria for assessing ecological hazards of man-made impact on biota: Searching for a system. - Doklady Akademii Nauk, 2000, Volume: 371, Issue: 6, Pages: 844-846. (in Russian);

Criteria of ecological hazards due to anthropogenic effects on the biota: searching for a system. - Dokl Biol Sci (Doklady Biological Sciences). 2000; 371:204-206. (in English);

English paper online free:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49088234

http://sites.google.com/site/2000dbs371p204criteria/

 

Key words: ecology, ecosystem, organisms, biosphere, bioassay, man-made impacts, biota, chemical factors, surfactants, xenobiotics, ecological hazards, chemicals, bioaccumulation, new criteria, pollutants,  plankton, benthos, water filtration, bivalves, Mytilus edulis, Triton X-100

Ключевые слова: экология, экосистема, организмы, биосфера, биоанализ, техногенные воздействия, биота, химические факторы, поверхностно-активные вещества, ксенобиотики, экологические опасности, химические соединения, биоаккумуляция, новые критерии, загрязняющие вещества, планктон, бентос, фильтрация воды, двустворчатые моллюски, Mytilus edulis, Triton X-100

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