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Development of aquatic life criteria in China: viewpoint on the challenge

  • Environmental Quality Benchmarks for Protecting Aquatic Ecosystems
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Abstract

While more developed countries have a well-established systems to develop water quality criteria (WQC), little research has been done on the adequacy of the current WQC to protect endemic species of China. In order to maintain the health of aquatic ecosystems in China, a series of projects to establish national WQC based on regional characteristics has recently been initiated. However, the establishment of a completely novel methodology would be costly and time consuming. Also, due to the similarities in physiologies and natural histories of classes of aquatic organisms, there is no reason to believe that WQC would not be sufficient to protect unique species in China. This review was undertaken to identify key outstanding issues regarding establishment of aquatic life criteria (ALC) to be applied in China, including prioritization of chemicals, test species, mode of action, field/semi-field data, and methods of aggregating the information and calculating the ALC. This was used to identify the principle issues that need to be addressed in order to better understand the methods for development of criteria for the protection of aquatic life and provide a reference to China and other developing countries committed to the establishment of their own WQC system.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2007CB407301), Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China (201009032), and National Major S&T Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (2013ZX07502001). Professor Giesy was supported by the program of 2012 “High Level Foreign Experts” (#GDW20123200120) funded by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, the People’s Republic of China to Nanjing University, and the Einstein Professor Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was also supported by the Canada Research Chair program and an at large Chair Professorship at the Department of Biology and Chemistry and State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong. We also would like to thank Prof. Xiaowei Zhang (State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse and School of the Environmental, Nanjing University, China), Dr. Gensen Kai (Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, California Environmental Protection Agency, USA), and Dr. Qingwei Bu (School of Environment, Tsinghua University, China) for the assistance with manuscript and valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Analytical Technique, China National Environmental Monitoring Center, Beijing, 100012, China

    Xiaowei Jin & Yeyao Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shuangqing Rd 18, Haidian District, Beijing, 100085, China

    Xiaowei Jin & Zijian Wang

  3. Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

    John P. Giesy

  4. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046, People’s Republic of China

    John P. Giesy

  5. Department of Zoology, Center for Integrative Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    John P. Giesy

  6. School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, People’s Republic of China

    John P. Giesy

  7. Department of Biology and Chemistry, State Key Laboratory for Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, People’s Republic of China

    John P. Giesy

  8. Environmental Toxicology Program, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

    Kristine L. Richardson

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  1. Xiaowei Jin
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  2. Yeyao Wang
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Correspondence to Zijian Wang.

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Responsible editor: Hailong Wang

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Jin, X., Wang, Y., Giesy, J.P. et al. Development of aquatic life criteria in China: viewpoint on the challenge. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 61–66 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1667-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1667-0

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