Burger J
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08855-1059, USA.
Environ Health Perspect. 1997 Jun;105 Suppl 4(Suppl 4):843-8. doi: 10.1289/ehp.97105s4843.
Differences in genetic susceptibility to hazardous chemicals affect individuals of both human and nonhuman populations. In both cases, differences in response to chemicals or general ill health result as a function of these differences in genetic susceptibility. However, ecological systems are a compilation of hundreds or even thousands of different species, resulting in structural and functional characteristics that are themselves affected by differences in susceptibility. Although individual and population differences in susceptibility to hazardous chemicals underlie effects at the community and the ecosystem level, they do not account for all differences. I propose a two-tiered approach to evaluating susceptibility to ecological systems: a general susceptibility as a function of ecosystem type (based on structure and function of that system) and a differential in susceptibility within broad ecosystem types as a function of biotic and abiotic factors. In terrestrial ecosystems, the two factors that most affect overall susceptibility are species diversity and hydrology; evaluation of the effects of hazardous chemicals involves measuring species diversity and water movement. This same methodological approach can be applied to aquatic ecosystems and to highly altered ecosystems such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and urbanization.
对有害化学物质的遗传易感性差异影响着人类和非人类种群中的个体。在这两种情况下，对化学物质的反应差异或总体健康状况不佳是这些遗传易感性差异的函数结果。然而，生态系统是由数百甚至数千个不同物种组成的集合，其结构和功能特征本身也受到易感性差异的影响。尽管个体和种群对有害化学物质的易感性差异是群落和生态系统层面影响的基础，但它们并不能解释所有差异。我提出一种两层方法来评估对生态系统的易感性：一种基于生态系统类型（基于该系统的结构和功能）的一般易感性，以及在广泛生态系统类型内作为生物和非生物因素函数的易感性差异。在陆地生态系统中，对总体易感性影响最大的两个因素是物种多样性和水文；对有害化学物质影响的评估涉及测量物种多样性和水的流动。同样的方法也可以应用于水生生态系统以及农业、林业、渔业和城市化等高度改变的生态系统。
