Aquatic Ecosystem Assessment Articles & Analysis
13 articles found
The mining industry is a common source of environmental metal emissions, which cause long‐lasting effects in aquatic ecosystems. Metal risk assessment is challenging due to variations in metal distribution, speciation, and bioavailability. ...
The ability to focus on the most biologically relevant contaminants affecting aquatic ecosystems can be challenging because toxicity assessment programs have not kept pace with the growing number of contaminants requiring testing. Because it has proven effective in assessing biological impacts of potentially toxic ...
Pharmaceuticals are ubiquitous contaminants in aquatic ecosystems. Adaptive monitoring, assessment and management programs will be required to reduce the environmental hazards of pharmaceuticals of concern. ...
Results of this analysis showed there is approximately 74% certainty that use of non‐native species to generate WQC would be sufficiently protective of aquatic ecosystems in China. Without applying any assessment factor to the WQC generated from non‐native species, the uncertainty would be 26% when the native Chinese species were under ...
Phytoplankton and zooplankton were also assessed in the aquatic ecosystem of Lake L3 at Bharti Island, Larsemann Hills over east Antarctica. ...
Historical contamination has left a legacy of high copper concentrations in the sediments of freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Previous mesocosm studies have focused on dissolved‐copper exposures in the overlying waters which, due to altered exposure pathways, may not accurately predict the effects of copper exposure on invertebrate communities at historically contaminated ...
The aim of the present investigation was to compile the site‐specific information obtained from this multidisciplinary research into an integrative perspective regarding the influence of Se speciation on biogeochemical cycling and food web transfer of Se in coldwater ecosystems. Within lakes, approximately 50% of sediment Se was in the form of elemental Se, although this ranged ...
Ensuring the health of aquatic ecosystems and identifying species at risk from the detrimental effects of environmental contaminants can be facilitated by integrating analytical chemical analysis with carefully selected biological endpoints measured in tissues of species of concern. ...
Measures to mitigate the risk of pesticide entry into aquatic ecosystems are becoming increasingly more important in the management of hot spots of pesticide transfer; such management, for example, is required by the European Union's directive for the sustainable use of pesticides (2009/128/EC). ...
Resource management agencies in the USA are expanding the use of tools for the assessment of ecosystem function in water quality programs to control NPS pollution to meet US Clean Water Act objectives. Assessing the ecosystem function of upland and riparian areas provides the context for monitoring data that can improve the ...
This study reviews the concept of model communities for water quality assessment in aquatic ecosystems. The feeding habits of protozoans were used to unite species into functional, trophic groups. ...
If sustainable development of Canadian waters is to be achieved, a realistic and manageable framework is required for assessing cumulative effects. The objective of this paper is to describe an approach for aquatic cumulative effects assessment that was developed under the Northern Rivers Ecosystem Initiative. The approach is ...
Biologists and policy makers continue to seek environmental correlates of mercury bioavailability in aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we assessed the effects of drainage basin, habitat type, size class, and sex on mercury concentrations in the northern crayfish, Orconectes virilis (Hagen). ...