title: Aquatic ecotoxicological models and their applicability in Arctic regions.
abstract: Dose-response modeling is one of the most important steps of ecological risk assessment. It requires concentration-effects relationships for the species under consideration. There are very limited studies and experimental data available for the Arctic aquatic species. Lack of toxicity data hinders obtaining dose-response relationships for lethal (LC50 values), sub-lethal and carcinogenic effects. Gaps in toxicity data could be filled using a variety of in-silico ecotoxicological methods. This paper reviews the suitability of such methods for the Arctic scenario. Mechanistic approaches like toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic analysis are found to be better suited for interspecies extrapolation than statistical methods, such as Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships/Quantitative Structure Activity-Activity Relationship, ICE, and other empirical models, such as Haber's law and Ostwald's equation. A novel approach is proposed where the effects of the toxicant exposure are quantified based on the probability of cellular damage and metabolites interactions. This approach recommends modeling cellular damage using a toxicodynamic model and physiology or metabolites interactions using a toxicokinetic model. Together, these models provide more reliable estimates of toxicity in the Arctic aquatic species, which will assist in conducting ecological risk assessment of Arctic environment.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Risk, Integrity and Safety Engineering (CRISE), Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada.
authors.forename: Faisal
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fahd
authors.affiliation: Centre for Risk, Integrity and Safety Engineering (CRISE), Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada. Electronic address: fikhan@mun.ca.
authors.forename: Faisal
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Centre for Risk, Integrity and Safety Engineering (CRISE), Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Veitch
authors.affiliation: Centre for Risk, Integrity and Safety Engineering (CRISE), Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada; Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan 010000.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D001110:Arctic Regions; D004463:Ecology; D054750:Ecotoxicology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018570:Risk Assessment
keywords: Arctic aquatic organisms; Ecological risk assessment; Ecotoxicogenomics; Metabolomics; Toxicodynamic models; Toxicokinetics