Species sensitivity distributions

Schmitt-Jansen M, Altenburger R (2005) Predicting and observing responses of algal communities to photosystem Il-herbicide exposure using pollution-induced community tolerance and species-sensitivity distributions. Environ Toxicol Chem 24 304... 

PosthumaL, Suter GW, Traas TP (eds) (2001) Species sensitivity distributions in ecotoxicology. CRC press, Boca Raton, EL... 

Fig. 1 Species sensitivity distribution for aquatic organisms exposed to cypermethrin...

Maltby L, Blake N, Brock TCM et al (2005) Insecticide species sensitivity distributions the importance of test species selection and relevance to aquatic ecosystems. Environ Toxicol Chem 24 379-388... 

Species sensitivity distributions are sometimes fitted by minimizing the sum of squared deviations between the empirical cumulative distribution function (cdf) and the fitted cdf. 

Reliable chronic toxicity data were available for 21 species of plants (13 phytoplankton and 8 macrophytes) and 15 species of animals. The species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) for atrazine chronic toxicity (no observed effect concentrations [NOECs]) to plants and animals are shown in Figure 4.4. A log-normal distribution model was fitted to each SSD by least-squares regression. 

The exposure distribution and species sensitivity distributions were integrated to generate risk curves for chronic effects. From the 504 000 values in the exposure exceedence curve, annual maximum concentrations corresponding to each 0.5th percentile were determined. The percentage of plant or animal species whose chronic NOEC would be exceeded at each of these concentrations was calculated from the log-normal SSD model. The percentage of plant or animal species affected at each exposure exceedence percentile was plotted as shown in Figure 4.5. 

FIGURE 4.4 Species sensitivity distributions for chronic toxicity of atrazine to plants (upper panel) and animals (lower panel). 

FIGURE 4.5 Risk curves based on exposure distribution for annual maximum atrazine concentrations in Tennessee ponds and chronic species sensitivity distributions for aquatic plants and animals. 

Confidence intervals nsing freqnentist and Bayesian approaches have been compared for the normal distribntion with mean p and standard deviation o (Aldenberg and Jaworska 2000). In particnlar, data on species sensitivity to a toxicant was fitted to a normal distribntion to form the species sensitivity distribution (SSD). Fraction affected (FA) and the hazardons concentration (HC), i.e., percentiles and their confidence intervals, were analyzed. Lower and npper confidence limits were developed from t statistics to form 90% 2-sided classical confidence intervals. Bayesian treatment of the uncertainty of p and a of a presupposed normal distribution followed the approach of Box and Tiao (1973, chapter 2, section 2.4). Noninformative prior distributions for the parameters p and o specify the initial state of knowledge. These were constant c and l/o, respectively. Bayes theorem transforms the prior into the posterior distribution by the multiplication of the classic likelihood fnnction of the data and the joint prior distribution of the parameters, in this case p and o (Fignre 5.4). 

Posthuma L, Suter GW II, Traas TP, editors, 2002. Species sensitivity distributions in ecotoxi-cology. Boca Raton (FL) Lewis Publishers. 

The measured exposure coneentrations from the field survey are used as a base for a probabilistic risk assessment. In such an assessment the exposure is presented as an exposure distribution. In this study the exposure distribution presents the spatial variation in the eoneentra-tions measured in e.g. a specific harbour or for all harbours. The exposure distribution ean be eompared to the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) for TBT. The SSD represents the average sensitivity of species and the variation among speeies. As the effect data of TBT, on which the SSD is based, is derived from coneentrations in water it was necessary to reealeulate all exposure... 

The Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) applied in this study is derived from data published by Lepper (2002). The SSD describes the average sensitivity of species and the variation among species (Posthuma et al., 2002). The SSD for TBT is based on toxicity data for 29 marine... 

Figure SI-2 Species Sensitivity Distribution for TBT-Sn based on the data for 29 marine and freshwater species...

Figure 5 Species sensitivity distribution (SSD) for the NOEC of specific dioxin-induced effects invertebrate species (common and Foster s tern, cormorant, bald eagle, European otter, mink, harbour seal and sole) expressed as internal...

Aldenberg, T., Jaworska, J.S., Traas, T.P. (2002). Normal species sensitivity distributions and probabilistic ecological risk assessment. In Posthuma, L., Suter II, G.W. and Traas, T.P., Species Sensitivity, Distributions in Ecotoxicology Boca Raton CRC Press, USA. 

Newman, M.C., Ownby, D.R., Mezin, L.C.A., Powell, D.C., Christensen, T.R.L., Lerberg, S.B., Anderson, B.A., (2000). Applying species-sensitivity distributions in ecological risk assessment Assumptions of distribution type and sufficient numbers of species. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 19, 508-515. 

Smit, M.G.D., Bechmann, R.K., Hendriks, A.J., Skadsheim, A., Larsen, B.K., Baussant, T, Bamber, S. and Sanni, S. (2009). Relating biomarkers to whole organism effects using species sensitivity distributions a pilot study for marine species exposed to oil. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 1104-1109. 

Van der Hoeven, N. (2001). Estimating the 5-percentile of the species sensitivity distributions without any assumptions... 

Wheeler, J.R., Leung, K.M.Y., Morrit, D., Sorokin, N., Rogers, H., Toy, R., Holt, M., Whitehouse, P. and Crane, M. (2002). Freshwater to saltwater toxicity extrapolation using species sensitivity distributions. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 21, 2459-2467. 

Posthuma L., Suter G.W. and Traas T. (eds.) (2002) Species Sensitivity Distributions in Risk Assessment, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 

Solomon, K.R., Takacs, P., 2002. Probabilistic risk assessment using species sensitivity distributions. In Posthuma, L., Taas, T., Suter, G.W. (Eds.), Species Sensitivity Distributions in Ecotoxicology. CRC, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 285-313. 

Brix, K.V., DeForest, D.K. and Adams, W.J. (2001a) Assessing acute and chronic copper risks to freshwater aquatic life using species sensitivity distributions for different taxonomic groups, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 20 (8), 1846-1856. 

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