Environmental Health Perspectives 105, Supplement 1, February 1997

Methods for and Approaches to Evaluating Susceptibility of Ecological Systems to Hazardous Chemicals

Joanna Burger

Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute and Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey

Abstract
Differences in genetic susceptibility to hazardous chemicals affect individuals of both human and nonhuman populations. In both cases, differences in response to chemicals or general ill health result as a function of these differences in genetic susceptibility. However, ecological systems are a compilation of hundreds or even thousands of different species, resulting in structural and functional characteristics that are themselves affected by differences in susceptibility. Although individual and population differences in susceptibility to hazardous chemicals underlie effects at the community and the ecosystem level, they do not account for all differences. I propose a two-tiered approach to evaluating susceptibility to ecological systems: a general susceptibility as a function of ecosystem type (based on structure and function of that system) and a differential in susceptibility within broad ecosystem types as a function of biotic and abiotic factors. In terrestrial ecosystems, the two factors that most affect overall susceptibility are species diversity and hydrology; evaluation of the effects of hazardous chemicals involves measuring species diversity and water movement. This same methodological approach can be applied to aquatic ecosystems and to highly altered ecosystems such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and urbanization. -- Environ Health Perspect 105(Suppl 4):843-848 (1997)

Key words: susceptibility, populations, communities, ecosystems, hazardous chemicals, biome vulnerability, ecosystem vulnerability

This paper was prepared as background for the Workshop on Susceptibility to Environmental Hazards convened by the Scientific Group on Methodologies for the Safety Evaluation of Chemicals (SGOMSEC) held 17-22 March 1996 in Espoo, Finland. Manuscript received at EHP 5 November 1996; accepted 18 November 1996.
I thank S. Bartell, L. Barnthouse, K. Cooper, B.D. Goldstein, M. Gochfeld, M. Greenberg, S. Handel, J. Ehrenfeld, M. Lee, J. Moore, S. Norton, D. Policansky, C. Powers, M. Robson, C. Safina, and D. Wartenberg for valuable discussions about ecological risk from hazardous chemicals, and susceptibility of ecological systems. I thank C. Nolan and D.B. Peakall for insightful comments on the manuscript. I was partially supported by the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), which is funded by the Department of Energy DE-F0C1-95EW55084, NIEHS grants ES05022 and ES05955, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute.
Address correspondence to Dr. J. Burger, Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Nelson Hall, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1059. Telephone: (908) 445-4318. Fax: (908) 445-5870. E-mail: burger@biology.rutgers.edu
Abbreviation used: NRC, National Research Council of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

[Table of Contents] [Full Article]

Last Update: June 18, 1997