PT18 Population-Level Ecological Risk Assessment
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday
(PT273) Predicting wildlife population effects from multiple stressors.
Nacci, D1, Pelletier, M1, Grear, J1, Bennett, R2, Nichols, J2, Haebler, R1, Walters, S1, Kuhn, A1, Nicholson, M1, Munns, Jr, W1, 1 US EPA ORD NHEERL AED, Narragansett, RI, USA2 US EPA ORD NHEERL AED, Duluth, MN, USA
ABSTRACT- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) is developing tools for predicting risks of multiple stressors to wildlife populations, which support the development of risk-based protective criteria. Part of NHEERL's research focuses on a demonstration project to assess the risks of dietary methylmercury (CH3Hg) and other stressors to populations of aquatic predators (i.e., common loon, Gavia immer). Relevant existing information (collected by a network of environmental protection-conservation partnerships) is being organized, and focused new studies are being conducted to develop models predicting CH3Hg effects on individuals and on local and regional scale wildlife populations. These models include: (1) a biologically-based toxicokinetic model to extrapolate CH3Hg effects from a tested bird species to untested species; (2) nonspatial population models to predict stressor effects on loon populations and to compare regional populations; and (3) habitat and spatially-explicit population models to assess relative contributions of chemical and non-chemical stressors and to demonstrate the effect of scale on the assessment of risks to wildlife populations. Central to this overall approach is the integration of these models, and their development and testing using data from observational and experimental studies. This project serves to demonstrate and evaluate a collaborative and integrative approach to quantify risks to wildlife populations from bioaccumulative toxicants and other stressors.
Key words: mercury effects, wildlife populations, environmental protection-conservation partnerships, loons