Biodiversity

Several recent expert reviews and workshops have discussed the effects of endocrine disruption on wildlife and especially invertebrate species. These include the EU workshop on the impact of endocrine disrupters on human health and wildlife (Weybridge, 1996), the lEH workshop (Leicester, May 1997), the Environment Agency Consultative report (January 1998) and the Tyndall Forum at the Royal Institution (February 1998). They have concluded that endocrine disruption may have far-reaching adverse consequences for biodiversity and the sustainability of natural ecosystems. More comprehensive bioassay systems are required to identify and assess chemicals alleged to produce endocrine modulating effects. 

The value 0.064 for CO2 given in Table 15.2 represents the sum of all impacts on human health, biodiversity, etc. 

CBA relies heavily on the costs of environmental impacts. Some impacts may be easily expressed in monetary values, like crop loss or even increased morbidity among people. Others, like impact on biodiversity and the depletion of natural resources, are more difficult to describe in terms of monetary values. Large time scales and global impacts also complicate the methodology and confuse the understanding of the results. Some of the environmental consequences of today s activities appear only after several hundred or thousand yeats. Even low interest rates tend to diminish these types of impact, even if they are very large. 

Ecological impact of operations. This includes the loss of biodiversity, loss of species, loss of wetlands and restoration of land and waters to environmentally beneficial use. This requires setting a base inventory and then periodically updating it. 

Fatal accident rate Lost-time injury rate Capital cost of accidents Number of plant/community evacuations Cost of business interruption Cost of workers compensation claims Number of hazardous material spills (in excess of a threshold) Tonnage of hazardous material spilled Tonnage of air, water, liquid and solid effluent Tonnage of polluting materials released into the environment Employee exposure monitoring Number of work related sickness claims Number of regulatory citations and fines Ecological impact of operations (loss or restoration of biodiversity, species, habitats)... 

Coles, S. L., DeFelice, R. C., Eldredge, L. G., and Carlton, J. T. (1997). Biodiversity of marine communities in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii with observations on introduced exotic species. Bishop Museum Technical Report No. 10, Honolulu, Hawaii. 

The human impact on the environment affects many areas of our lives and future. One example is the effect of acid rain on biodiversity, the diversity of living things. In the prairies that extend across the heartlands of North America and Asia, native plants have evolved that can survive even nitrogen-poor soil and drought. By studying prairie plants, scientists hope to breed food plants that will be hardy sources of food in times of drought. However, acid rain is making some of these plants extinct. 

For Further Reading J. P. Grime, Biodiversity and ecosystem function The debate deepens, Science, vol. 277, 1997, pp. 1260-1261. C. K. Fajcwski and H. T. Mullins, Historic calcite record from the Finger Fakes, New York Impact of acid rain on a buffered terrane, Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 115, 2003, pp. 373-384. J. Raloff, Pollution helps weeds take over prairies, Science News, vol. 150, 1996, p. 356. Environment Canada, Acid rain, http //www.ec.gc.ca/acidrain/. 

Changes in the composition of the atmosphere are perhaps our most valid indicators of the influence of human activities on global systems. The next best barometer may very well be loss of biodiversity due to habitat destruction. 

Keywords Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Drought, Intermittent, Stream... 

Sala OE, Chapin FS, Armesto JJ et al (2000) Biodiversity-global biodiversity scenarios for the year 2100. Science 287 1770-1774... 

Meyer JL, Strayer DL, Wallace JB, Eggert SL, Helfman GS, Leonard NE (2007) The contribution of headwater streams to biodiversity in river networks. J Am Water Resour Assoc 43 86-103... 

Xenopoulos MA, Lodge DM (2006) Going with the flow using species-discharge relationships to forecast losses in fish biodiversity. Ecology 87 1907-1914... 

Bunn SE, Arthington AH (2002) Basic principles and ecological consequences of altered flow regimes for aquatic biodiversity. Environ Manage 30(4) 492-507... 

Terrestrial ecosystems (plants and animals) under water scarcity suffer from water stress, and aquatic ecosystems of intermittency in water flow. Water scarcity has implications on hydrologic resources and systems coimectivity, as well as negative side-effects on biodiversity, water quality, and river ecosystem functioning. Finally, water scarcity has also direct impacts on citizens and economic sectors that use and depend on water, such as agriculture, tourism, industry, energy and transport. 

Figure 4.6 Nonsustainable logging in Laos is an example of the current loss of biodiversity.

Testa B, Balmat AL, Long A, Judson P. Predicting drug metabolism—an evaluation of the expert system METEOR. Chem Biodiversity 2005 2 872-85. 

---