Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Sci Total Environ. 2010 Aug 15;408(18):3908-17. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.11.045. Epub 2009 Dec 14.
Wildlife organisms are exposed to a combination of chemical, biological and physical stressors. Information about the relative impact of each stressor can support management decisions, e.g., by the allocation of resources to counteract those stressors that cause most harm. The present paper introduces Eco-SpaCE; a novel receptor-oriented cumulative exposure model for wildlife species that includes relevant ecological processes such as spatial habitat variation, food web relations, predation, and life history. A case study is presented in which the predicted mortality due to cadmium contamination is compared with the predicted mortality due to flooding, starvation, and predation for three small mammal species (Wood mouse, Common vole, and European mole) and a predator (Little owl) living in a lowland floodplain along the river Rhine in The Netherlands. Results indicated that cadmium is the principal stressor for European mole and Little owl populations. Wood mouse and Common vole population densities were mainly influenced by flooding and food availability. Their estimated population sizes were consistent with numbers reported in literature. Predictions for cadmium accumulation and flooding stress were in agreement with field data. The large uncertainty around cadmium toxicity for wildlife leads to the conclusion that more species-specific ecotoxicological data is required for more realistic risk assessments. The predictions for starvation were subject to the limited quantitative information on biomass obtainable as food for vertebrates. It is concluded that the modelling approach employed in Eco-SpaCE, combining ecology with ecotoxicology, provides a viable option to explore the relative contribution of contamination to the overall stress in an ecosystem. This can help environmental managers to prioritize management options, and to reduce local risks.
野生动物暴露于化学、生物和物理压力源的综合影响下。了解每种压力源的相对影响可以支持管理决策，例如，将资源分配用于对抗那些造成最大危害的压力源。本文介绍了 Eco-SpaCE；这是一种新的面向受体的野生动物物种累积暴露模型，它包括相关的生态过程，如空间栖息地变化、食物网关系、捕食和生活史。本文提出了一个案例研究，比较了三种小型哺乳动物（林鼠、普通田鼠和欧洲鼹鼠）和一种生活在荷兰莱茵河低地洪泛平原的捕食者（小鸮）因镉污染而导致的预测死亡率与因洪水、饥饿和捕食而导致的预测死亡率。结果表明，镉是欧洲鼹鼠和小鸮种群的主要压力源。林鼠和普通田鼠的种群密度主要受洪水和食物供应的影响。它们的估计种群规模与文献中报道的数量一致。对镉积累和洪水胁迫的预测与现场数据一致。野生动物镉毒性的巨大不确定性导致需要更多的物种特异性生态毒理学数据来进行更现实的风险评估。对饥饿的预测受到可获得的脊椎动物食物生物量的定量信息有限的限制。结论是，Eco-SpaCE 中采用的将生态学与生态毒理学相结合的建模方法为探索污染对生态系统整体压力的相对贡献提供了一种可行的选择。这可以帮助环境管理者确定管理选项的优先级，并降低局部风险。
