Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Environ Toxicol Chem. 2019 Feb;38(2):289-301. doi: 10.1002/etc.4308. Epub 2019 Jan 8.
Global environmental monitoring has indicated that the structure and function of some aquatic ecosystems has been significantly altered by human activities. There are many potential causes for these changes; however, one major concern is the increasing release of anthropogenic contaminants into aquatic environments. Although toxicological responses of individual organisms are typically well characterized, few studies have focused on characterizing toxicity at the ecosystem level. In fact, because of their scale and complexity, changes in ecosystem integrity are rarely considered in assessments of risks to ecosystems. This work attempts to move the conversation forward by defining integrity of ecosystems, reviewing current and historical approaches to measuring ecosystem integrity status (e.g., structural and functional measurements), and highlighting methods that could significantly contribute to the field of ecosystem toxicology (e.g., keystone species, environmental energetics, ecotoxicological modeling, and adverse outcome pathways [AOPs]). Through a critical analysis of current and historical methodologies, the present study offers a comprehensive, conceptual framework for the assessment of risks of contaminant exposure for whole ecosystems and proposes steps to facilitate better diagnoses of the integrity of aquatic systems. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:289-301. © 2018 SETAC.
全球环境监测表明，人类活动已显著改变了一些水生生态系统的结构和功能。这些变化可能有许多潜在的原因，但人们主要关注的是人为污染物不断向水生环境释放。尽管单个生物体的毒理学反应通常特征明显，但很少有研究集中在生态系统水平上的毒性特征描述。事实上，由于其规模和复杂性，在评估对生态系统的风险时，很少考虑生态系统完整性的变化。这项工作试图通过定义生态系统的完整性，回顾当前和历史上衡量生态系统完整性状况的方法（例如，结构和功能测量），并突出可能对生态系统毒理学领域做出重大贡献的方法（例如，关键种、环境能量学、生态毒理学模型和不良结局途径[AOPs]），来推动这一讨论。通过对当前和历史方法的批判性分析，本研究为评估整个生态系统的污染物暴露风险提供了一个全面的、概念性的框架，并提出了一些步骤来促进更好地诊断水生系统的完整性。 2019 年《环境毒理学化学》289-301 页。 © 2018 SETAC。
