The inaugural International Conference on Deriving Environmental Quality Standards for the Protection of Aquatic Ecosystems (EQSPAE-2011) was held at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Hong Kong, China, in December 2011. The proceedings of this first conference dedicated to improving methodologies for setting environmental quality benchmarks (EQB) for protection of surface waters, sediments, and aquatic life were published as a special issue in Environmental Science and Pollution Research (Leung et al. 2014). Building on this successful foundation, the 2nd International Conference on Deriving Environmental Quality Standards for the Protection of Aquatic Ecosystems (EQSPAE-2016) was held at HKU in June 2016.

With the conference grant from the Environment and Conservation Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, we were able to bring leading experts in the field of derivation and application of EQBs from North America, Europe, Australia, Korea, and mainland China to further explore new and improved methods for advancing the science supporting national and international regulatory policies aimed at environmental protection. The EQSPAE-2016 Conference provided an invaluable platform for 128 environmental scientists and practitioners from 17 countries representing the academic, business, and governmental communities to participate in two 1-day training workshops and a 2-day scientific symposium and share their knowledge and experience in EQB derivation and water quality management and, importantly, to promote capacity building and foster international collaboration (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
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Group picture taken after the opening ceremony of the EQSPAE-2016

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In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region and countries such as Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Korea, UK, and the USA have invested considerable efforts to revise and update surface water and sediment quality guidelines. This has prompted research and advancements in the science and several methodologies useful to the derivation of generic EQBs and site-specific EQBs, as well as advancements in related regulatory policies and applications for water quality management in different parts of the world.

Following on from the EQSPAE-2011 Conference, one of the pre-eminent leaders in this field, Dr. Peter Chapman, cautioned experts and policy-makers working in these endeavors that EQBs such as surface water and sediment quality guidelines represent only one of line of evidence for assessing the potential harm posed by chemicals and other stressors in the environment (Chapman 2017). EQBs, Dr. Chapman observed, are useful but not perfect tools for environmental decision-making. EQBs can be “good” in specific applications and a means to communicate scientific information to decision-makers, but EQBs can also be “bad” when adopted as absolute limits or aimed at the protection of individual organisms rather than populations of organisms or “ugly” when derived from overly simplistic indices or applied outside the bounds of scientific support.

Building on Dr. Chapman’s caution and his inspiring keynote address, the EQSPAE-2016 Conference resolved to identify and explore a number of challenging science and regulatory issues that environmental scientists and policy-makers must overcome to be successful:

  • How can we modify the current EQBs of chemical pollutants while considering the, as yet uncertain, combined effects of chemicals and climate change (e.g., temperature and pH changes) to aquatic life?

  • How can we derive and apply appropriate EQBs of individual chemical pollutants when we are, in practice, required to manage chemical mixtures and multiple stressors in the aquatic environment?

  • How can we make use of toxicity information from non-native species to protect locally untested indigenous species?

  • How can we make use of toxicity information from temperate regions to protect tropical, sub-tropical and polar aquatic ecosystems?

  • What are the best approaches to design and conduct field experiments to validate the effectiveness of EQBs for protecting biodiversity and ecosystem function/service?

  • How can we increase ecological realism in the scientific derivation of EQBs?

The scientific debates and discussions during the EQSPAE-2016 training workshops and symposia were both inspiring and spirited largely by the challenging questions posed by Dr. Chapman throughout the conference. It is with profound sadness that we acknowledge Dr. Chapman’s passionate voice and wisdom will be missing as we continue to explore the answers to these and other challenging questions. Dr. Peter Michael Chapman (1951–2017) passed away, far too early, on 26 September 2017 leaving behind a devoted and loving family and countless friends and colleagues around the world.

As a global leader in the scientific derivation and application of EQBs and marine ecotoxicology, Dr. Chapman was the invited keynote speaker at both EQSPAE-2011 and EQSPAE-2016 (Fig. 2). At the first conference, his keynote address, “Environmental Quality Guidelines and Protection of Ecosystem Services” highlighted the limitations of the general EQB framework and offered recommendations for improving the protection of aquatic life and defining management goals aimed at preserving ecosystem services. At EQSPAE-2016, Dr. Chapman’s keynote address focused on “Environmental Quality Benchmarks––The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” (Chapman 2017).

Fig. 2
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The late Dr. Peter Chapman presenting his opening keynote lecture at the EQSPAE-2011 (a) and at the conference dinner at the EQSPAE-2016 (b)

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Dr. Chapman’s presence at the EQSPAE meetings was unmistakable; he never failed to ask sharply focused questions during the question-and-answer session after each platform presentation and during round-table discussions. He shared his critical views unapologetically on a range of science and management issues, always supported by real-world examples to illustrate his views. He was provocative and passionate in promoting best practices in the field. Dr. Chapman was among the first scientists, if not the first, to advocate abolishing the use of no observed effect concentration (NOEC) data (Chapman et al. 1996). His arguments at EQSPAE-2011 for dropping the word “heavy” when referring to metal substances in the environment were convincing and unassailable (Chapman 2012).

Dr. Chapman’s devotion to his profession was as boundless as his commitment to the EQSPAE meetings. He earned his PhD in benthic ecology in 1979 at the University of Victoria in Canada, with an emphasis on ecotoxicology and risk assessment. He was a partner for 25 years at EVS Environment Consultants in nearby Vancouver, among the earliest science-focused environmental consulting companies in North America and an inspiration for several successful environment professionals and ecology/risk consulting companies thereafter. His company merged with Golder Associates, and 10 years later, he retired to his private consulting practice, Chapema Environmental Strategies, in 2014. His many science and consulting collaborations never slowed down. From his early career, he devoted much of his effort and time to scientific writing and publishing in peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Environmental Science and Technology Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, Marine Pollution Bulletin etc.). He served as editors for several science journals and shared his opinions on contemporary issues in environmental science and management through editorial articles and conference presentations. By last count, Dr. Chapman had published over 300 journal articles, earning an h-index of 60 and garnering more than 12,000 citations (Google Scholar citations: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=V0_QgUoAAAAJ&hl=zh-TW, retrieved on 26 October 2017).

His most well-known and highly cited published works include methods for assessment of sediment contamination (and in particular, metals), development of a sediment quality triad framework, proposals for numerous sediment quality criteria, methods for using safety factors in ecological risk assessment, a weight of evidence approach to handle uncertainty in risk assessment, and methods for whole effluent toxicity testing.

Dr. Chapman’s influence on environmental risk assessment and management is evident in many parts of the world. He travelled constantly to supervise ecology surveys, advise governments, meet with stakeholders engaged in difficult environmental problem-solving, and give lectures. He was a dedicated and committed supporter of university students and young environmental professionals. He never missed an opportunity to share his knowledge and experience with young people. We shall miss his voice, his passion, and his boundless energy and enthusiasm for making things right in science and promoting the protection of the natural environment.

As a way to pay tribute to his leadership and wonderful contributions to the advancement of the science and application of EQBs, the Organizing Committee of the EQSPAE-2016 Conference and our guest editorial team dedicate this special issue to Dr. Peter Chapman. He was our brilliant and gifted colleague, our favorite critic, and most of all, our dear and generous, kind-hearted friend who was always ready with a wry smile and the time to listen and share considered opinions. We shall miss him dearly.

Papers in this special issue

This special issue of Environmental Science and Pollution Research is entitled “Environmental Quality Benchmarks for Aquatic Ecosystem Protection: Derivation and Application.” It features a collection of 15 papers presented by experts at the EQSPAE-2016 Conference. Following the opening article by Dr. Peter Chapman on the good, the bad, and the ugly of EQBs, Professor Allen Burton discusses how we can establish more realistic sediment quality guidelines while considering the coexisting multiple stressors in the aquatic benthic ecosystem. Next, Dr. Graham Merrington and colleagues deliberate on why and how the use of EQBs should result in environmental benefits. Since manufactured nanomaterials, as an emerging group of chemical contaminants, currently do not have EQBs, Mr. Racliffe Lai and his team discuss the challenges and suggest possible approaches for setting EQBs to protect aquatic life.

Thereafter, this special issue presents seven papers describing the current status and latest advancements on the derivation and application of EQBs in China (Zhao et al.; Chen et al.), Korea (Kwak et al.; Kwak and An), Switzerland (Casado-Martinez et al.), the USA (Saari et al.), and Australia (Warne et al.), respectively. This special issue concludes with four papers addressing contemporary issues related to laboratory-based toxicity tests, including the use of the water-effect ratio to develop site-species EQBs for copper (Bao et al.), some insights from multigenerational toxicity tests with marine copepods (Sun et al.), and revealing toxicities of some emerging chemicals (Ali et al.; Lei et al.). We feel strongly that this collection of papers from the EQSPAE-2016 Conference are valuable contributions to the scientific literature and useful to environmental researchers and practitioners worldwide involved in management of surface water and sediment quality.