title: Dietary Toxicity Thresholds and Ecological Risks for Birds and Mammals Based on Species Sensitivity Distributions.
abstract: Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) are commonly used in regulatory procedures and ecological risk assessments. Yet, most toxicity threshold and risk assessment studies are based on invertebrates and fish. In the present study, no observed effect concentrations (NOECs) specific to birds and mammals were used to derive SSDs and corresponding hazardous concentrations for 5% of the species (HC5 values). This was done for 41 individual substances as well as for subsets of substances aggregated based on their toxic Mode of Action (MoA). In addition, potential differences in SSD parameters (mean and standard deviation) were investigated in relation to MoA and end point (growth, reproduction, and survival). The means of neurotoxic and respirotoxic compounds were significantly lower than those of narcotics, whereas no differences were found between end points. The standard deviations of the SSDs were similar across MoA's and end points. Finally, the SSDs obtained were used in a case study by calculating Ecological Risks (ER) and multisubstance Potentially Affected Fractions of species (msPAF) based on 19 chemicals in 10 Northwestern European estuaries and coastal areas. The assessment showed that the risks were all below 2.6 × 10-2. However, the calculated risks underestimate the actual risks of chemicals in these areas because the potential impacts of substances that were not measured in the field or for which no SSD was available were not included in the risk assessment. The SSDs obtained can be used in regulatory procedures and for assessing the impacts of contaminants on birds and mammals from fish contaminants monitoring programs.
authors: Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Environmental Science, Radboud University , P.O. Box 9010, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors: John C
authors: JC
authors: Korsman
authors: Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Environmental Science, Radboud University , P.O. Box 9010, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency , P.O. Box 303, 3721 MA Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
authors: Aafke M
authors: AM
authors: Schipper
authors: Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Environmental Science, Radboud University , P.O. Box 9010, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors: A Jan
authors: AJ
authors: Hendriks
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds; D005399:Fishes; D008322:Mammals; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013045:Species Specificity; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical