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Toxicity Bioassays for Ecological Risk Assessment in Arid and Semiarid Ecosystems

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Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology

Part of the book series: Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology ((RECT,volume 168))

Abstract

Ecological risk assessment (ERA) is a tool used to estimate adverse effects on the environment from chemical or physical stressors. ERA can evaluate historical releases or the potential impact of proposed facilities or new chemicals. This review considers ERA in the context of historical releases of chemical stressors in dry environments. Arid and semiarid ecosystems present special challenges for application of risk assessment tools. One key problem is that most toxicity bioassays have been developed for aquatic environments or mesic ecosystems. However, roughly one-third of the earth’s land area is characterized by dry conditions. In the United States, many large federal facilities are located in arid and semiarid environments. For example, a recent evaluation of ecological resources at major U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) facilities showed that almost 90% of the land surveyed is characterized as arid and semiarid (McAllister et al. 1996). It is anticipated that ERA will be the main tool used by USDOE to make waste management and restoration decisions in these dry systems (McAllister et al. 1996).

The submitted manuscript has been created by the University of Chicago as Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”) under Contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up nonexclusive irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government.

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  1. Neptune and Company, Inc., 1505 15th St., Suite B, Los Alamos, NM, 87544, USA

    James T. Markwiese, Randall T. Ryti, Mark M. Hooten & Daniel I. Michael

  2. Environmental Assessment Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Ave., Argonne, IL, 60439, USA

    Ihor Hlohowskyj

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Markwiese, J.T., Ryti, R.T., Hooten, M.M., Michael, D.I., Hlohowskyj, I. (2001). Toxicity Bioassays for Ecological Risk Assessment in Arid and Semiarid Ecosystems. In: Ware, G.W. (eds) Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, vol 168. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0143-1_2

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