Vikkula Sami, Mäntyniemi Samu, Kuikka Sakari
University of Helsinki, Fisheries and Environmental Management Group, Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, P.O Box 65, Viikinkaari 1, P, Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland.
Natural Resources Institute Finland, Latokartanonkaari 9, Helsinki, FI-00790, Finland.
Aquat Toxicol. 2025 Sep;286:107480. doi: 10.1016/j.aquatox.2025.107480. Epub 2025 Jul 2.
The risk of oil spills has increased in recent years due to rising tanker traffic and the emergence of poorly maintained vessels. While the environmental impacts of oil spills are wide-ranging, their effects on fish populations remain contested, prompting the need for further research and the development of improved tools and methodologies for impact assessment. One complicating factor is the heterogeneity of existing laboratory exposure data, which hinders their usage in population-level oil spill impact assessment. This study addresses that gap by compiling a dataset from peer-reviewed laboratory exposure studies on the early life stages (ELS) of fish exposed to oil. Through a systematic literature review, we identified relevant studies and developed novel standardization methods to improve data comparability. These methods included converting diverse exposure metrics to a baseline polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration metric, calculating the geometric mean and time-weighted average concentrations, and modeling missing control concentrations. The resulting dataset encompasses multiple fish species and oil types, as well as wide exposure time and PAH concentration ranges, in order to support impact assessments across diverse spill scenarios in fish population dynamics models. Although our methodology significantly increased the amount of usable data, the species and oil type coverage remained uneven, requiring model structures that accommodate information borrowing. We provide recommendations to improve future experimental reporting and suggest methodological extensions for the standardization methods. This study demonstrates how structured data compilation and standardization can cost-effectively expand the applicability of existing experimental data for oil spill impact assessment.
近年来，由于油轮运输量的增加以及出现了维护不善的船只，石油泄漏的风险有所上升。虽然石油泄漏对环境的影响是多方面的，但其对鱼类种群的影响仍存在争议，这促使需要进一步开展研究，并开发改进的工具和方法来进行影响评估。一个复杂因素是现有实验室暴露数据的异质性，这阻碍了它们在种群层面的石油泄漏影响评估中的应用。本研究通过汇编来自同行评审的关于鱼类幼鱼期（ELS）暴露于石油的实验室暴露研究的数据集来填补这一空白。通过系统的文献综述，我们确定了相关研究，并开发了新的标准化方法以提高数据的可比性。这些方法包括将不同的暴露指标转换为基线多环芳烃（PAH）浓度指标、计算几何平均值和时间加权平均浓度，以及对缺失的对照浓度进行建模。所得数据集涵盖多种鱼类物种和油类，以及广泛的暴露时间和PAH浓度范围，以支持鱼类种群动态模型中不同泄漏情景下的影响评估。尽管我们的方法显著增加了可用数据的数量，但物种和油类类型的覆盖范围仍然不均衡，需要能够容纳信息借用的模型结构。我们提供了改进未来实验报告的建议，并对标准化方法提出了方法扩展建议。本研究展示了结构化数据汇编和标准化如何能够经济高效地扩大现有实验数据在石油泄漏影响评估中的适用性。
