Department of Science and High Technology, University of Insubria, Como, Italy.
Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2013 Jul;9(3):e4-14. doi: 10.1002/ieam.1442. Epub 2013 Jun 19.
Evaluating organism exposure in the ecosystems is a difficult task and can be carried out measuring or predicting concentrations in the environment. Although current regulatory approaches favor a modeling approach, they either use a static representation of the environment and of the chemical discharge or a simplified dynamic approach (e.g., dealing with pesticides). Improving the ecological realism of exposure prediction offers a number of challenges. Some are related to the understanding of basic mechanisms such as bioavailability and the determination of internal exposure or the need to develop new paradigms for polar and ionized chemicals. Other issues are the need to provide monitoring data to understand the environmental fate of chemical mixtures, polar and ionized chemicals and metabolites, to understand the complexity of exposure in spatially and temporally variable environments. Exposure models require the development of suitable approaches to simulate the complexity of exposure in the ecosystems including the development of a variety of temporal and spatial scenarios and the integration of submodels (such as aquatic and terrestrial food webs). Finally, the integration of dynamic exposure and effect models is envisaged to fully carry out a more realistic ecological risk assessment.
评估生态系统中的生物暴露是一项艰巨的任务，可以通过测量或预测环境中的浓度来进行。尽管目前的监管方法倾向于采用建模方法，但它们要么使用静态的环境和化学排放表示，要么采用简化的动态方法（例如，处理农药）。提高暴露预测的生态现实性带来了许多挑战。其中一些与理解基本机制有关，例如生物利用度和内暴露的确定，或者需要为极性和离子化化学品开发新的范例。其他问题是需要提供监测数据，以了解化学混合物、极性和离子化化学品以及代谢物的环境归宿，以及了解在空间和时间上变化的环境中暴露的复杂性。暴露模型需要开发合适的方法来模拟生态系统中的暴露复杂性，包括开发各种时间和空间情景以及整合子模型（如水生和陆地食物网）。最后，预计将动态暴露和效应模型进行整合，以充分进行更现实的生态风险评估。
