The use of traits‐based approaches and eco(toxico)logical models to advance the ecological risk assessment framework for chemicals

This article presents a framework to diagnose and predict the effects of chemicals, integrating 2 promising tools to incorporate more ecology into ecological risk assessment, namely traits-based approaches and ecological modeling. Traits-based approaches are used increasingly to derive correlations between the occurrence of species traits and chemical exposure from biological and chemical monitoring data. This assessment can also be used in a diagnostic way, i.e., to identify the chemicals probably posing the highest risks to the aquatic ecosystems. The article also describes how ecological models can be used to explore how traits govern the species-substance interactions and to predict effects at the individual, population, and community and ecosystem level, i.e., from the receptor to the landscape level. This can be done by developing models describing the toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of the chemical in the individual, the life-history of species and the connectivity of populations, determining their recovery, and the food web relations at the community and ecosystem level that determine the indirect effects. Special attention is given on how spatial aspects can be included in the ecological risk assessments using ecological models. The components of the framework are introduced and critically discussed. We describe how the different tools and data generated through experimentation (laboratory and semifield) and biomonitoring can be integrated. The article uses examples from the aquatic compartment, but the concepts that are used, and their integration within the framework, can be generalized to other environmental compartments.

[1]  Joseph M. Culp,et al.  7.1 – INSIGHT INTO POLLUTION EFFECTS IN COMPLEX RIVERINE HABITATS: A ROLE FOR FOOD WEB EXPERIMENTS , 2006 .

[2]  Matthias Liess,et al.  Long-term stream invertebrate community alterations induced by the insecticide thiacloprid: effect concentrations and recovery dynamics. , 2008, The Science of the total environment.

[3]  B W Kooi,et al.  Sublethal toxic effects in a generic aquatic ecosystem. , 2011, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[4]  J E Banks,et al.  Population dynamics models in plant-insect herbivore-pesticide interactions. , 2005, Mathematical biosciences.

[5]  Donald J. Baird,et al.  Trait patterns of aquatic insects across gradients of flow-related factors: a multivariate analysis of Canadian national data , 2008 .

[6]  Valery E. Forbes,et al.  Population-level consequences of spatially heterogeneous exposure to heavy metals in soil: An individual-based model of springtails , 2013 .

[7]  Mats Gyllenberg,et al.  Two General Metapopulation Models and the Core-Satellite Species Hypothesis , 1993, The American Naturalist.

[8]  Malgorzata Lagisz,et al.  Spatial Dynamic Factors Affecting Population-Level Risk Assessment for a Terrestrial Arthropod: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach , 2012 .

[9]  Carola A. Schriever,et al.  The footprint of pesticide stress in communities--species traits reveal community effects of toxicants. , 2008, The Science of the total environment.

[10]  Amelie Schmolke,et al.  The role of ecological models in linking ecological risk assessment to ecosystem services in agroecosystems. , 2012, The Science of the total environment.

[11]  Roman Ashauer,et al.  Framework for traits‐based assessment in ecotoxicology , 2011, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[12]  Bas Kooijman,et al.  Dynamic Energy Budget Theory for Metabolic Organisation , 2005 .

[13]  Marten Scheffer,et al.  Super-individuals a simple solution for modelling large populations on an individual basis , 1995 .

[14]  Bernard W. Sweeney,et al.  Applying DNA barcoding in benthology: the state of the science , 2011, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[15]  N. LeRoy Poff,et al.  A database of lotic invertebrate traits for North America , 2006 .

[16]  C. Braak,et al.  Toward Ecologically Scaled Landscape Indices , 2001, The American Naturalist.

[17]  Laurent Lagadic,et al.  Influence of isolation on the recovery of pond mesocosms from the application of an insecticide. II. Benthic macroinvertebrate responses , 2007, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[18]  Peter C. de Ruiter,et al.  DYNAMIC FOOD WEBS , 2006 .

[19]  Chris Klok,et al.  Extending a combined dynamic energy budget matrix population model with a bayesian approach to assess variation in the intrinsic rate of population increase. An example in the earthworm Dendrobaena octaedra , 2007, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[20]  Sandrine Charles,et al.  Integrating the lethal and sublethal effects of toxic compounds into the population dynamics of Daphnia magna: A combination of the DEBtox and matrix population models , 2007 .

[21]  Glenn W. Suter,et al.  CADDIS: The Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System , 2009 .

[22]  Dennis D. Murphy,et al.  Distribution of the Bay Checkerspot Butterfly, Euphydryas editha bayensis: Evidence for a Metapopulation Model , 1988, The American Naturalist.

[23]  Volker Grimm,et al.  Dynamic Energy Budget theory meets individual‐based modelling: a generic and accessible implementation , 2012 .

[24]  B. Statzner,et al.  Can biological invertebrate traits resolve effects of multiple stressors on running water ecosystems , 2010 .

[25]  Matt R. Whiles,et al.  Biotic Indices and Stream Ecosystem Processes: Results from an Experimental Study , 1996 .

[26]  J. Gareth Polhill,et al.  The ODD protocol: A review and first update , 2010, Ecological Modelling.

[27]  Brenda Rashleigh,et al.  Foodweb modeling for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Twelvemile Creek Arm of Lake Hartwell, South Carolina, USA , 2009 .

[28]  Andrew Morozov,et al.  From spatially explicit ecological models to mean-field dynamics: The state of the art and perspectives , 2012 .

[29]  Mun Il Ryoo,et al.  A modeling study of soil temperature and moisture effects on population dynamics of Paronychiurus kimi (Collembola: Onychiuridae) , 2006, Biology and Fertility of Soils.

[30]  Danielle J. Marceau,et al.  The role of agent-based models in wildlife ecology and management , 2011 .

[31]  P. Calow,et al.  Promises and problems for the new paradigm for risk assessment and an alternative approach involving predictive systems models , 2012, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[32]  F. Périé,et al.  Calibration, validation and sensitivity analysis of an ecosystem model applied to artificial streams. , 2008, Water research.

[33]  Matthias Liess,et al.  Competition increases toxicant sensitivity and delays the recovery of two interacting populations. , 2012, Aquatic toxicology.

[34]  Pernille Thorbek,et al.  Linking pesticide exposure and spatial dynamics: An individual-based model of wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) populations in agricultural landscapes , 2013 .

[35]  H. Possingham,et al.  Spatial variability in ecosystem services: simple rules for predator-mediated pest suppression. , 2010, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[36]  J. Cairns,et al.  Putting the eco in ecotoxicology. , 1988, Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP.

[37]  Donald J. Baird,et al.  Species traits as predictors for intrinsic sensitivity of aquatic invertebrates to the insecticide chlorpyrifos , 2012, Ecotoxicology.

[38]  Neo D. Martinez,et al.  Allometric scaling enhances stability in complex food webs. , 2006, Ecology letters.

[39]  Brenda Rashleigh,et al.  Application of AQUATOX, a Process-Based Model for Ecological Assessment, to Contentnea Creek in North Carolina , 2003 .

[40]  J. M. Baveco,et al.  Assessing the impact of pesticides on lumbricid populations: an individual-based modelling approach , 1996 .

[41]  N. Scholz,et al.  Estimating the future decline of wild coho salmon populations resulting from early spawner die‐offs in urbanizing watersheds of the Pacific Northwest, USA , 2011, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[42]  D. G. Armanini,et al.  Towards generalised reference condition models for environmental assessment: a case study on rivers in Atlantic Canada , 2012, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

[43]  Lawrence W Barnthouse,et al.  Quantifying population recovery rates for ecological risk assessment , 2004, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[44]  Jana Verboom,et al.  An individual‐based approach to model spatial population dynamics of invertebrates in aquatic ecosystems after pesticide contamination , 2007, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[45]  Martin Drechsler,et al.  Biodiversity conservation in dynamic landscapes: trade-offs between number, connectivity and turnover of habitat patches , 2011 .

[46]  W. Hilsenhoff.  Rapid Field Assessment of Organic Pollution with a Family-Level Biotic Index , 1988, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[47]  Matthias Liess,et al.  Intraspecific competition increases toxicant effects in outdoor pond microcosms , 2012, Ecotoxicology.

[48]  Sandy Raimondo,et al.  From organisms to populations: Modeling aquatic toxicity data across two levels of biological organization , 2006, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[49]  P. J. Van den Brink,et al.  Potential application of population models in the European ecological risk assessment of chemicals II: Review of models and their potential to address environmental protection aims , 2010, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[50]  Colin R. Janssen,et al.  Functional redundancy and food web functioning in linuron-exposed ecosystems. , 2011, Environmental pollution.

[51]  Daniel L. Peters,et al.  Development of a benthic macroinvertebrate flow sensitivity index for Canadian rivers , 2011 .

[52]  Lorraine Maltby,et al.  Insecticide species sensitivity distributions: Importance of test species selection and relevance to aquatic ecosystems , 2005, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[53]  Virginie Ducrot,et al.  Dynamic energy budget as a basis to model population‐level effects of zinc‐spiked sediments in the gastropod Valvata piscinalis , 2007, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[54]  Dayanthi Nugegoda,et al.  A trait database of stream invertebrates for the ecological risk assessment of single and combined effects of salinity and pesticides in South-East Australia. , 2011, The Science of the total environment.

[55]  Alan R. Johnson.  Landscape Ecotoxicology and Assessment of Risk at Multiple Scales , 2002 .

[56]  N LeRoy Poff,et al.  Incorporating traits in aquatic biomonitoring to enhance causal diagnosis and prediction , 2011, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[57]  Paul J van den Brink,et al.  Simulating population recovery of an aquatic isopod: Effects of timing of stress and landscape structure. , 2012, Environmental pollution.

[58]  Marco Vighi,et al.  GIS-based procedure for site-specific risk assessment of pesticides for aquatic ecosystems. , 2008, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[59]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems: linking theory to observation , 2003 .

[60]  John Pastor,et al.  Overview of case studies on recovery of aquatic systems from disturbance , 1990 .

[61]  Paul J. Van den Brink,et al.  Assessing aquatic population and community-level risks of pesticides. , 2013 .

[62]  Neo D. Martinez,et al.  Scaling up keystone effects from simple to complex ecological networks , 2005 .

[63]  Elke I. Zimmer,et al.  Simplified dynamic energy budget model for analysing ecotoxicity data. , 2012 .

[64]  Neo D. Martinez,et al.  Simple prediction of interaction strengths in complex food webs , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[65]  R. King,et al.  A new method for detecting and interpreting biodiversity and ecological community thresholds , 2010 .

[66]  Stephen J. Smith,et al.  Gradient forests: calculating importance gradients on physical predictors. , 2012, Ecology.

[67]  Nico M. van Straalen,et al.  Biodiversity of Ecotoxicological Responses in Animals , 1993 .

[68]  Robert S Schick,et al.  Graph models of habitat mosaics. , 2009, Ecology letters.

[69]  Lester L. Yuan,et al.  Assessing the consistency of response metrics of the invertebrate benthos: a comparison of trait‐ and identity‐based measures , 2009 .

[70]  Kimberly A. With,et al.  THRESHOLD EFFECTS OF LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE ON BIOLOGICAL CONTROL IN AGROECOSYSTEMS , 2002 .

[71]  B W Kooi,et al.  Model analysis of a simple aquatic ecosystems with sublethal toxic effects. , 2008, Mathematical biosciences and engineering : MBE.

[72]  Richard A. Park,et al.  AQUATOX: Modeling environmental fate and ecological effects in aquatic ecosystems ☆ , 2008 .

[73]  Atte Moilanen,et al.  Metapopulation responses to patch connectivity and quality are masked by successional habitat dynamics. , 2009, Ecology.

[74]  Karin Frank,et al.  Spatial aspects of metapopulation survival – from model results to rules of thumb for landscape management , 1998, Landscape Ecology.

[75]  Theo P Traas,et al.  A freshwater food web model for the combined effects of nutrients and insecticide stress and subsequent recovery , 2004, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[76]  Anthony W. King,et al.  Analysis of landscape sources and sinks: the effect of spatial pattern on avian demography , 2001 .

[77]  V E Forbes,et al.  Population-level impacts of pesticide-induced chronic effects on individuals depend more on ecology than toxicology. , 2009, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[78]  N. LeRoy Poff,et al.  Functional trait niches of North American lotic insects: traits-based ecological applications in light of phylogenetic relationships , 2006, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[79]  Atte Moilanen,et al.  On the limitations of graph‐theoretic connectivity in spatial ecology and conservation , 2011 .

[80]  Marco Vighi,et al.  Assessing, mapping and validating site-specific ecotoxicological risk for pesticide mixtures: a case study for small scale hot spots in aquatic and terrestrial environments. , 2011, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[81]  Brian A. Maurer,et al.  Effects of chronic pesticide stress on wildlife populations in complex landscapes: Processes at multiple scales , 1996 .

[82]  Paul J. Van den Brink,et al.  Ecological risk assessment: from book-keeping to chemical stress ecology. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[83]  Roman Ashauer,et al.  General unified threshold model of survival--a toxicokinetic-toxicodynamic framework for ecotoxicology. , 2011, Environmental science & technology.

[84]  Donald J. Baird,et al.  Beyond taxonomy: a review of macroinvertebrate trait‐based community descriptors as tools for freshwater biomonitoring , 2010 .

[85]  U. Hommen,et al.  Development and validation of an individual based Daphnia magna population model: The influence of crowding on population dynamics , 2009 .

[86]  Donald J Baird,et al.  Traits‐based ecological risk assessment (TERA): Realizing the potential of ecoinformatics approaches in ecotoxicology , 2011, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[87]  Peter Kareiva,et al.  Special Feature: Space: The Final Frontier for Ecological Theory , 1994 .

[88]  Roman Ashauer,et al.  Toxicokinetic–toxicodynamic modelling in an individual based context—Consequences of parameter variability , 2010 .

[89]  Roman Ashauer,et al.  Simulating toxicity of carbaryl to Gammarus pulex after sequential pulsed exposure. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[90]  P. J. Van den Brink,et al.  Potential application of ecological models in the European environmental risk assessment of chemicals I: Review of protection goals in EU directives and regulations , 2010, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[91]  Hazel R. Parry,et al.  A comparative analysis of parallel processing and super-individual methods for improving the computational performance of a large individual-based model , 2008 .

[92]  Matthias Liess,et al.  Climate change, agricultural insecticide exposure, and risk for freshwater communities. , 2011, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[93]  Paul J. Van den Brink,et al.  Effects of the insecticide dursban® 4E (active ingredient chlorpyrifos) in outdoor experimental ditches: II. Invertebrate community responses and recovery , 1996 .

[94]  Matthias Liess,et al.  Two stressors and a community: effects of hydrological disturbance and a toxicant on freshwater zooplankton. , 2013, Aquatic toxicology.

[95]  Roman Ashauer,et al.  Toxicokinetic variation in 15 freshwater arthropod species exposed to the insecticide chlorpyrifos , 2010, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[96]  Paul C. Jepson,et al.  A metapopulation approach to modelling the long-term impact of pesticides on invertebrates. , 1993 .

[97]  M. Liess,et al.  Ecotoxicology and macroecology--time for integration. , 2012, Environmental pollution.

[98]  Bin-Le Lin,et al.  Approaches for establishing predicted-no-effect concentrations for population-level ecological risk assessment in the context of chemical substances management. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[99]  Walter Schmitt,et al.  Toxicokinetic‐toxicodynamic modeling of quantal and graded sublethal endpoints: A brief discussion of concepts , 2011, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[100]  G.A.K. van Voorn,et al.  Sublethal toxic effects in a simple aquatic food chain , 2008 .