Commercial production of eggs and egg products requires the washing of eggs to remove urinary / fecal material and broken egg residue. In the case of one Ohio farming facility, 1.6 million birds produce 1.4 million eggs per day, using ∼50 mL of wash water / egg or ∼ 70,000 L per day. The aqueous waste stream was evaluated for estrogenicity, to determine if potential for endocrine disruption would result from agricultural application of such wastewater. Samples collected the Fall (October) of 2010 included: water from two egg washers operating in series, inlet pipe to the treatment lagoon, a lagoon composite, and products used within the facility in the cleaning of equipment and treatment of the waste. In February 2011, the treatment lagoon was fitted with an extensive aeration system and subsequent sample sets were collected on three consecutive days in May and November. Samples were extracted by solid phase extraction and assayed for estrogenic activity using the in vitro E-Screen assay. Raw untreated wastewater from the egg washers contained 17 ß-estradiol equivalents (E₂EqS) ranging from 9 to 18 ng/L, pipe grab samples entering into the treatment lagoon ranged from < 0.14 to 4.4 ng/L (variability related to time of emptying of egg wash tanks), while treatment lagoon water contained 0.3 to 4.0 ng/L E₂Eq . Addition of an aeration system to the treatment lagoon eliminated surface “frothing,” reduced noxious odor emission, and E₂Eqs were lower than the pre-aeration concentrations (4 ng/L (n=1, no statistical comparison possible) versus 0.3 to 1.4 ng/L in 2011). Due to matrix effects, estrogens were not quantifiable by LC-MS2 in even egg washwater extracts, at concentrations in which internal deuterated estrogen standards were quantifiable. Estrone and E₂ parent ions were detected in egg washwater samples only, and confirmatory ion fragments were detected in only one of these samples. Estrogenicity of the wastewater from the treatment lagoon was already at the proposed aquatic no effect concentration for 17ß-E2, and would be expected to decrease further as wastewater passes through two consecutive storage ponds prior to application on field crops for irrigation. The original project plan was to follow the wastewater as it was applied by aerial irrigation and concomitant surface runoff, but based on the consistent and extremely low concentration of estrogenic activity of the wastewater from the treatment lagoon, it was concluded that activity would be below limits of quantitation by E-Screen in water used for irrigation from the storage ponds. Utilization of egg wash wastewater - or gray water - to irrigate crops, removes the cost and burden of wastewater treatment by the local wastewater plant, poses little to no potential threat of estrogenic endocrine disruption, and supports the conservation of water resources through the use of wastewater irrigation. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2013 SETAC

SimpleTreat 3.1 is the sewage treatment plant (STP) model implemented in the EU framework for the environmental risk assessment of chemicals. The model was originally designed for neutral hydrophobic chemicals, while many substances currently under regulatory scrutiny, are ionisable at environmental pH. Although the model has been adapted to describe ionisation (SimpleTreat 3.1), the fate of organic ions is limited to the unbound aqueous phase, which seriously restricts the applicability domain. New regressions were implemented to estimate the sludge-water partition coefficient normalized to organic carbon (K_OC) of monovalent acids and bases from the octanol-water partition coefficient (K_OW), the dissociation constant (pK_a) and the pH. We evaluated the updated model (SimpleTreat 3.2) with ten test chemicals by comparing predictions with monitoring data collected from the literature. Test chemicals were specifically selected to challenge the applicability domain and to cover a wide range of functionalities and physical-chemical properties. Although predicted effluent concentrations are generally conservative, SimpleTreat 3.2 provides reasonable estimates for use in lower tier risk assessment for neutral and monovalent ionisable chemicals. The accuracy of the new K_OC regressions is acceptable for monovalent acid, but is lower for bases, for which measured sludge K_OC is highly recommended. Measured K_OC are also recommended for ionic surfactants and necessary for organic ligands, which may limit the applicability of SimpleTreat using a basic input dataset. The conservative nature of model estimates reflects the default worst case, non-numerical parameterization of biodegradation rates and the assumption that biodegradation is limited to the unbound aqueous phase. The potential of refining the description of biodegradation using higher tier simulation tests is explored in a parallel paper. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2013 SETAC

Given the large number of chemicals under regulatory scrutiny, models play a crucial role in the screening phase of the environmental risk assessment. The sewage treatment plant (STP) model SimpleTreat 3.1 is routinely applied as part of the European Union System for the Evaluation of Substances to estimate the fate and elimination of organic chemicals discharged via the sewage. SimpleTreat estimates tend to be conservative, and therefore only useful for lower tier assessments. A probabilistic version of SimpleTreat was built on the updated version of the model (SimpleTreat 3.2, presented in a parallel paper), embracing likeliest as well as worst-case conditions in a statistically robust way. Probabilistic parameters representing the variability of sewage characteristics, STP design and operational parameters were based on actual STPs conditions for activated sludge plants in Europe. An evaluation study was carried out for four chemicals with distinct sorption and biodegradability profiles: tonalide, triclosan, trimethoprim and linear alkylbenzene sulfonate. Simulations incorporated information on biodegradability simulation studies with activated sludge (OECD 314B and OECD 303A tests). Good agreement for both median values and variability ranges was observed between model estimates and monitoring data. The uncertainty analysis highlighted the importance of refined data on partitioning and biodegradability in activated sludge to achieve realistic estimates. The study indicates that the best strategy to refine the exposure assessment of down-the-drain chemicals is by integrating higher tier laboratory data with probabilistic STP simulations and, if possible, by comparing them with monitoring data for validation. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2013 SETAC

According to European legislation, an Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) of veterinary medicinal products (VMPs) for dung fauna is required in the authorization process if the substance acts as a parasiticide for the treatment of pasture animals. In the past, however, the demonstration of the environmental safety of those VMPs for dung fauna was strongly hampered by the fact that no standardized tests were available. Therefore, starting with recommendations from the SETAC advisory group DOTTS (Dung Organism Toxicity Test Standardization) test systems for phase II Tier A standardized tests on the mortality of dung fly and dung beetle larvae were developed and published by OECD in 2008 and 2010. If a risk is identified for dung organisms in phase II Tier A of the ERA process, further tests are required for Tier B. But so far no advice is given for such studies in the existing guidelines. Therefore, four workshops took place between 2007 and 2009 with international dung fauna experts (Aveiro-Group) in order to find an appropriate test strategy for dung fauna organisms beyond Tier A mortality testing. For the first time two different Tier B extended laboratory test approaches for dung beetles and test strategies for scenarios beyond Tier B are described here in more detail. In case the risk assessment is still not clear, further options for Tier C (i.e. field studies) or Tier D (modeling) is briefly presented. Finally, the role of uncertainty and variability of test results is discussed, including recommendations for assessment factors for the different tiers to be used when assessing the risk of VMPs on dung organisms. The approach, especially the test strategy, will help industry, consultants and assessors appropriately assess the environmental risk assessments during the authorization procedure of parasiticides. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2013 SETAC

Estuarine eutrophication as a result of agricultural land use including the use of chemical fertilizers is increasing worldwide. Prince Edward Island, Canada has very high agricultural intensity by international standards with approximately 44% of the land area under production, and some watersheds in excess of 75% agricultural land-use. The type of agriculture is also intensive with primarily row crops that have high chemical fertilizer and pesticide usage. In light of these stressors, the hypothesis of this study was that mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) population parameters would change with point and non-point source pollution, and that multivariate statistics could be used to draw associations with specific stressors. Fish were sampled on a monthly basis from May through August at seven estuaries spanning a range of land use, nutrient, and contaminant loadings. A suite of environmental variable were simplified into three principal components, PC1 representing agricultural land use, nitrogen loading, and plant habitat, PC2 being dominated by sediment sand/silt distribution, and PC3 largely reflecting P loading and sediment organic matter. There were significant differences in abundance of both adult and young-of-the-year mummichog and these changes associated most strongly with PC1, the largely N-driven agricultural influences. In contrast, somatic variables such as liver and gonad size did not show strong association with the environmental quality principal component scores. The sand/silt PC2 appeared to have the opposite association with the biological data, with siltier environments correlating to older, larger, less dense populations of mummichog. While pesticide residues were detected in estuarine sediment, there was no clear relationship between these and watershed agricultural intensity or biochemical indicators. There was however a strong relationship between agricultural environmental variables (PC1) and in vitro steroid production that is suggestive of a potential chemical effect. Eutrophication appeared to be a primary stressor affecting mummichog populations as nutrient enrichment was associated with changes in habitat variables and these in turn were associated with high mummichog density. Thus, mummichog population demographics appears to have utility as an indicator of adverse or worsening conditions in estuaries. We concluded that, based on the subset of environmental factors evaluated, the non-point-source inputs of sediments and nutrients exerted the greatest influence on mummichog populations in PEI estuaries. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2013 SETAC

Municipalities utilize aquatic environments to assimilate their domestic effluent resulting in eutrophication, anoxia, toxicity and endocrine disruption of aquatic biota. The objective of this study was to assess the potential cumulative impacts of municipal wastewater effluent (MWWE) discharges in the Grand River on the health status of a sentinel species and the fish community downstream of 2 MWWE discharges. The fish communities downstream of the MWWE outfalls demonstrated differences in the abundance and diversity, species and family richness, % tolerance and % vulnerability when compared to the fish community upstream or further downstream of these points of effluent discharge. In both years studied, the fish community exposed to MWWE in the riffle-run habitats demonstrated reductions in the proportion of the most prominent fish (Rainbow Darter, Ethoestoma caeruleum) downstream of the outfalls, and a significant increase in the proportion of large mobile, tolerant-omnivorous fish species such as suckers and sunfish. There was less variability in the responses of the fish community to MWWE in the same season between years than between seasons within the same year. An examination of how impaired health of a sentinel species exposed to MWWE discharges parallels changes in the fish community is also conducted. This study successfully demonstrates the cumulative impact of urban development, including multiple outfalls of treated wastewater effluents on fish populations and communities. Municipalities are the major source of nutrients and pharmaceuticals and personal care products to aquatic systems, and they need to consider their impacts carefully with increasing urban population growth and ageing demographics. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2012 SETAC

This article is the second in a 2-part series assessing the accumulated state of the transboundary Yukon River (YR) basin in northern Canada and the United States. The determination of accumulated state based on available long-term (LT) discharge and water quality data is the first step in watershed cumulative effect assessment in the absence of sufficient biological monitoring data. Long-term trends in water quantity and quality were determined and a benchmark against which to measure change was defined for 5 major reaches along the YR for nitrate, total and dissolved organic carbon (TOC and DOC, respectively), total phosphate (TP), orthophosphate, pH, and specific conductivity. Deviations from the reference condition were identified as “hot moments” in time, nested within a reach. Significant increasing LT trends in discharge were found on the Canadian portion of the YR. There were significant LT decreases in nitrate, TOC, and TP at the Headwater reach, and significant increases in nitrate and specific conductivity at the Lower reach. Deviations from reference condition were found in all water quality variables but most notably during the ice-free period of the YR (May–Sept) and in the Lower reach. The greatest magnitudes of outliers were found during the spring freshet. This study also incorporated traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into its assessment of accumulated state. In the summer of 2007 the YR Inter Tribal Watershed Council organized a team of people to paddle down the length of the YR as part of a “Healing Journey,” where both Western Science and TEK paradigms were used. Water quality data were continuously collected and stories were shared between the team and communities along the YR. Healing Journey data were compared to the LT reference conditions and showed the summer of 2007 was abnormal compared to the LT water quality. This study showed the importance of establishing a reference condition by reach and season for key indicators of water health to measure change, and the importance of placing synoptic surveys into context of LT accumulated state assessments. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2013 SETAC

A consistent methodology for assessing the accumulating effects of natural and manmade change on riverine systems has not been developed for a whole host of reasons including a lack of data, disagreement over core elements to consider, and complexity. Accumulated state assessments of aquatic systems is an integral component of watershed cumulative effects assessment. The Yukon River is the largest free flowing river in the world and is the fourth largest drainage basin in North America, draining 855 000 km² in Canada and the United States. Because of its remote location, it is considered pristine but little is known about its cumulative state. This review identified 7 “hot spot” areas in the Yukon River Basin including Lake Laberge, Yukon River at Dawson City, the Charley and Yukon River confluence, Porcupine and Yukon River confluence, Yukon River at the Dalton Highway Bridge, Tolovana River near Tolovana, and Tanana River at Fairbanks. Climate change, natural stressors, and anthropogenic stresses have resulted in accumulating changes including measurable levels of contaminants in surface waters and fish tissues, fish and human disease, changes in surface hydrology, as well as shifts in biogeochemical loads. This article is the first integrated accumulated state assessment for the Yukon River basin based on a literature review. It is the first part of a 2-part series. The second article (Dubé et al. this issue) is a quantitative accumulated state assessment of the Yukon River Basin where hot spots and hot moments are assessed outside of a “normal” range of variability. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2012 SETAC

Effects-based analysis is a fundamental component of watershed cumulative effects assessment. This study conducted an effects-based analysis for the Peace-Athabasca-Slave River System, part of the massive Mackenzie River Basin, encompassing 20% of Canada's total land mass and influenced by cumulative contributions of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam (Peace River) and industrial activities including oil sands mining (Athabasca River). This study assessed seasonal changes in 1) Peace River water quality and quantity before and after dam development, 2) Athabasca River water quality and quantity before and after oil sands developments, 3) tributary inputs from the Peace and Athabasca Rivers to the Slave River, and 4) upstream to downstream differences in water quality in the Slave River. In addition, seasonal benchmarks were calculated for each river based on pre-perturbation post-perturbation data for future cumulative effects assessments. Winter discharge (January–March) from the Peace and Slave Rivers was significantly higher than before dam construction (pre-1967) (p < 0.05), whereas summer peak flows (May–July) were significantly lower than before the dam showing that regulation has significantly altered seasonal flow regimes. During spring freshet and summer high flows, the Peace River strongly influenced the quality of the Slave River, as there were no significant differences in loadings of dissolved N, total P (TP), total organic C (TOC), total As, total Mn, total V, and turbidity and specific conductance between these rivers. In the Athabasca River, TP and specific conductance concentrations increased significantly since before oil sands developments (1967–2010), whereas dissolved N and sulfate have increased after the oil sands developments (1977–2010). Recently, the Athabasca River had significantly higher concentrations of dissolved N, TP, TOC, dissolved sulfate, specific conductance, and total Mn than either the Slave or the Peace Rivers during the winter months. The transboundary nature of the Peace, Athabasca, and Slave River basins has resulted in fragmented monitoring and reporting of the state of these rivers, and a more consistent monitoring framework is recommended.

Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2012 SETAC

Environmental impacts can manifest themselves in a cumulative manner over very large spatial (watershed) and temporal (decadal) scales. In response to these challenges, scientists have been developing methods that attempt to assess the complex interactions between our environment and the current and future demands of society. This article proposes a framework for quantifying cumulative changes in water quality and quantity and demonstrates its implementation in an entire watershed, the Athabasca River Basin in Alberta, Canada. The Athabasca River Basin is an ideal watershed for this study as it has undergone significant increase in urban and industrial developments that have the potential to impact this aquatic ecosystem. This framework addresses the problems of setting a historical baseline and comparing it to the current state in a quantitative way. This framework also creates the potential for predicting future impacts by creating thresholds specific to the study area. The outcome of this framework is the identification and quantification of specific stressors (dissolved Na, chloride, and sulfate) showing significant change across the entire Athabasca River Basin, as well as the development of thresholds for these parameters. This information can be used in future assessments of proposed development and possible mitigation in the basin. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2012;X:000–000. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2012 SETAC

Increased land use intensity has been shown to adversely affect aquatic ecosystems. Multiple landscape stressors interact over space and time, producing cumulative effects. Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) is the process of evaluating the impact a development project may have on the ecological surroundings, but several challenges exist that make current approaches to cumulative effects assessment ineffective. The main objective of this study was to compare results of different methods used to link landscape stressors with stream responses in a highly developed watershed, where past work has shown that the river has experienced significant water quality and quantity changes to improve approaches to CEA. The study site was the lower reaches of the Athabasca River, Canada that have been subjected to a diverse range of intense anthropogenic developments since the late 1960s. Linkages between landscape change and river response were evaluated using correlation analyses, stepwise, multiple regression, and regression trees. Notable landscape changes include increased industrial development and forest cut-blocks, made evident from satellite imagery and supporting ancillary data sets. Simple regression analyses showed water use was closely associated with total phosphorus (TP) and Na⁺ concentrations, as well as specific conductance. The regression trees for total organic carbon (TOC), TP, and Na⁺ showed that the landscape variables that appear as the first characteristic were the same variables that showed significant relations for their respective simple regression models. Simple, stepwise, and multiple regressions in conjunction with regression trees were useful in this study for capturing the strongest associations between landscape stressors and river response variables. The results highlight the need for improved scaling methods and monitoring strategies crucial to managing cumulative effects to river systems. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2012 SETAC

The accumulating effects of human development are threatening water quality and availability. In recognition of the constraints to cumulative effects assessment (CEA) under traditional environmental impact assessment (EIA), there is an emerging body of research dedicated to watershed-based cumulative effects assessment (WCEA). To advance the science of WCEA, however, a standard set of ecosystem components and indicators is required that can be used at the watershed scale, to inform effects-based understanding of cumulative change, and at the project scale, to inform regulatory-based project based impact assessment and mitigation. A major challenge, however, is that it is not clear how such ecosystem components and indicators for WCEA can or should be developed. This study examined the use of aquatic ecosystem components and indicators in EIA practice in the South Saskatchewan River watershed, Canada, to determine whether current practice at the project scale could be “scaled up” to support ecosystem component and indicator development for WCEA. The hierarchy of assessment components and indicators used in a sample of 35 environmental impact assessments was examined and the factors affecting aquatic ecosystem component selection and indicator use were identified. Results showed that public environmental impact statements are not necessarily publically accessible, thus limiting opportunities for data and information sharing from the project to the watershed scale. We also found no consistent terminology across the sample of impact statements, thus making comparison of assessment processes and results difficult. Regulatory compliance was found to be the dominant factor influencing the selection of ecosystem components and indicators for use in project assessment, rather than scientific reasoning, followed by the mandate of the responsible government agency for the assessment, public input to the assessment process, and preexisting water licensing arrangements external to the assessment process. The current approach to project-based assessment offered little support for WCEA initiatives. It did not provide a standard set of aquatic ecosystem components and indicators or allow the sharing of information across projects and from the project to the watershed scale. We suggest that determining priority assessment parameters for WCEA requires adoption of a standardized framework of component and indicator terminology, which can then be populated for the watershed of concern based on both watershed-based priorities and project-specific regulatory requirements. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2012 SETAC

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the use of watershed-based cumulative effects assessment (WCEA) in Canada; however, several challenges remain regarding its effective implementation and execution. Fundamental to WCEA is the establishment of linkages between environmental stressors and particular and measurable components of the aquatic environment. Dynamic and often synergistic relationships between the multiple physicochemical stressors in the landscape can affect water quantity, quality, and the health of aquatic species. Essential decisions must be made about what to measure to characterize both stressors and aquatic effects, what scale is appropriate for measurement, and to what the measurements should be referenced. This review presents lessons learned from case studies conducted in 6 different watersheds across Canada, each focused on advancing the science behind WCEA, but with varied objectives and approaches. Issues of scale, selection of aquatic environmental components or indicators for assessment, and reference conditions were compared and contrasted to highlight common challenges that can affect the implementation and outcome of a WCEA. The lack of long-term monitoring data and data inconsistencies were identified as frequently limiting factors for the advancement of WCEA science and the application of WCEA. Recommendations were made for developing a comprehensive and integrated methodology for WCEA in Canada. Integr Environ Assess Manag © 2012 SETAC

Challenges to the credibility of the scientific community make it particularly important for environmental scientists to understand the bases for the authority of their science. We argue that pragmatism provides a defensible and effective scientific philosophy. It provides a transparent basis for justifying belief and a set of practices and concepts for inference. It makes the scientific community the author of scientific truth, which has implications for the opening of science in the age of social media and the communication of consensus positions on important issues. We describe how pragmatism acknowledges the social aspect of science without losing the scientific tradition of critical thinking. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 181–184. © 2012 SETAC

This article describes the outcome and follow-up discussions of an expert group meeting (Amsterdam, October 9, 2009) on the applicability of toxicity profiling for diagnostic environmental risk assessment. A toxicity profile was defined as a toxicological “fingerprint” of a sample, ranging from a pure compound to a complex mixture, obtained by testing the sample or its extract for its activity toward a battery of biological endpoints. The expert group concluded that toxicity profiling is an effective first tier tool for screening the integrated hazard of complex environmental mixtures with known and unknown toxicologically active constituents. In addition, toxicity profiles can be used for prioritization of sampling locations, for identification of hot spots, and—in combination with effect-directed analysis (EDA) or toxicity identification and evaluation (TIE) approaches—for establishing cause–effect relationships by identifying emerging pollutants responsible for the observed toxic potency. Small volume in vitro bioassays are especially applicable for these purposes, as they are relatively cheap and fast with costs comparable to chemical analyses, and the results are toxicologically more relevant and more suitable for realistic risk assessment. For regulatory acceptance in the European Union, toxicity profiling terminology should keep as close as possible to the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) terminology, and validation, standardization, statistical analyses, and other quality aspects of toxicity profiling should be further elaborated. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 185–191. © 2013 SETAC

To limit the risk associated with invasion of habitats by exogenous species, the International Convention for the Control and Management of the Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments was adopted in February 2004 and may soon enter into force. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has produced guidelines to assess the efficacy and reliability of Ballast Water Treatment Systems (BWTS), but no guidance on how to take temperature into account during test cycles has been provided yet. Temperature is one of the main factors influencing the distribution and ecology of organisms along latitudes. Its increase results in higher grazing, growth, and reproduction rates of zooplankton. Under dark conditions, phytoplankton loss is also increased due to faster natural decay as well as enhanced top down control from zooplankton. Increased temperatures also improve the efficacy of chemical treatment, whereas the decay rates of disinfectants and their byproducts are potentially accelerated. The IMO guidelines for the type approval of BWTS should be amended to include recommendations on how to take temperature into account. Failing to ensure comparability and reliability between tests may pose a threat to the environment and may create problems for those attempting to apply BWTS. We propose to use a fixed Q₁₀ value and a temperature of reference to adjust the retention time in ballast water tanks during testing. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 192–195. © 2013 SETAC

This theoretical and case study review of dynamic exposures of aquatic organisms to organic contaminants examines variables important for interpreting exposure and therefore toxicity. The timing and magnitude of the absorbed dose change when the dynamics of exposure change. Thus, the dose metric for interpreting toxic responses observed during such exposure conditions is generally limited to the specific experiment and cannot be extrapolated to either other experiments with different exposure dynamics or to field exposures where exposure dynamics usually are different. This is particularly true for mixture exposures, for which the concentration and composition and, therefore, the timing and magnitude of exposure to individual components of different potency and potentially different mechanisms of action can vary. Aquatic toxicology needs studies that develop temporal thresholds for absorbed toxicant doses to allow for better extrapolation between conditions of dynamic exposure. Improved experimental designs are required that include high-quality temporal measures of both the exposure and the absorbed dose to allow better interpretation of data. For the short term, initial water concentration can be considered a conservative measure of exposure, although the extent to which this is true cannot be estimated specifically unless the dynamics of exposure as well as the toxicokinetics of the chemicals in the exposure scenario for the organism of interest are known. A better, but still limited, metric for interpreting the exposure and, therefore, toxicity is the peak absorbed dose, although this neglects toxicodynamics, requires appropriate temporal measures of accumulated dose to determine the peak concentration, and requires temporal thresholds for critical body residue for each component of the mixture. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 196–210. © 2012 SETAC

The Ecosystem Service Paradigm (EsSP) is increasingly a component or even an underlying principle of environmental policy, legislation and management internationally. The EsSP can be used to define links between human activities and ecosystems, and ecosystems and the services that in turn support and sustain those and other activities; this information can then be used to evaluate, justify or optimize decisions. However, how EsS within various practical applications and frameworks are applied, defined, quantified, modelled, valued and communicated ranges widely, potentially hindering their roles as cross-sectoral tools. For this paradigm to be useful for cross-disciplinary integration, it is important that practitioners in different fields are clear about what is meant and assumed when terms are used, and within what context assessments are being carried out. The logic behind practical applications of the EsSP can be explained by the EsS Decision Cascade, a three-part, iterative conceptual framework. Within the decision cascade, Ecosystem Service Decision Analysis (EsSD) defines the proposed policies or actions (scenarios), and the changes/pressures under consideration in different scenarios. Within the context laid out by EsSD, Ecosystem Service Assessment (EsSA) will then evaluate how such changes affect biophysical structure, and thus ecosystem function and services; Ecosystem Service Valuation (EsSV) then takes the results from these analyses and generates valuations to inform decisions; linking back to EsSD. EsS-based evaluations can expand the current risk-focused thinking behind ecological risk assessment (ERA) to consider trade-offs between a range of desirable and undesirable responses of a variety of ecosystem endpoints; such an assessment can be termed an Ecosystem Response Assessment (EcoResA), or if applied in a spatially explicit manner, an Ecosystem Regional Assessment (EcoRegA); understanding of such trade-offs is essential to inform decisions about more sustainable remediation, regulation and management of landscapes and resources. This paper describes “taxonomies” of various aspects of EsSP applications, based upon their decision context, perspective and assessment approach. It then examines, with a focus on European issues, a range of current and emerging regulatory and management applications to which the EsSP can be applied in light of this taxonomy. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 214–230. © 2012 SETAC

In this article, we focus on the importance of terrestrial ecosystems and the services they provide. European Union policies, contributing to the conservation and maintenance of ecosystem services in Europe are discussed and their current impacts briefly reviewed in the light of the main challenges that European ecosystems might face in the near future. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 231–236. © 2013 SETAC

Increasing reference to the ecosystem services (ES) concept is made in publications on the need to use natural resources sustainably, to protect and enhance biodiversity, and to alleviate poverty in developing countries. To examine the significance of the concept in densely populated industrialized countries, this case study investigates its use in several sustainable landscape management projects in the Netherlands. Guidance by the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project (TEEB) for local and regional policy and management serves as a reference. The projects studied show that the ES concept is seen as a tool for enhancing biodiversity, creating more sustainable regional development plans, supporting better spatial-planning decisions on soil sealing, and, most importantly, for getting the involvement of much broader stakeholder groups—not just to make better decisions, but also to attract more funding for the plans. Not only does the Netherlands have a high demand for various ecosystem services and a desire for multifunctional land use, it also has a long tradition of consensus-seeking. As a result, “Dutch practice” is complex and involves many different stakeholders. Because of increasing recognition of the role ecosystem services play in enhancing the visibility of natural resources in decision making, the ES concept seems to be gaining a foothold. However, the number of projects is still limited, and neither the use of the methods nor the results are monitored. So far, this has made it impossible to say whether the approach leads to more sustainable decisions—in other words, to the better protection and management of natural resources. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 237–242. © 2013 SETAC

This article presents a literature review that explores the challenges for planning in urban regions in connection with the preservation of ecosystem services. It further presents some best practice examples for meeting these challenges. The demand for the provision of ecosystem services within urban regions changed during the transition from a largely agrarian society to an industrial society and, most recently, to a service society. Although in the past, provisioning services such as food production or the provision of raw material were decisive for urban development, today cultural services, e.g., clear views or nearby recreation areas, have become increasingly important. According to the literature, soil sealing is the greatest threat urbanization poses toward ecosystem services, as it compromises all of them. Spatially extensive cities with a high building density particularly inhibit regulating services like the regulation of temperature or water surface runoff. Conversely, scattered settlement patterns may lead to very small remnants of open space that cannot reasonably serve as natural habitat, agricultural land, or recreation area. The challenges for planning in urban regions are: 1) specifying regulations that define outer limits to the development of each settlement unit, 2) comprehensive planning with focal points for development, and limiting access and development at other places, and 3) compensating for new soil sealing by restoring nearby sealed areas. The article presents 3 best-practice examples that support these principles: designating areas with a particular soil quality that should not be built over, offering incentives for corporate planning in urban regions, and restoring a country road in connection with a motorway construction. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 243–251. © 2013 SETAC

A narrow technocentric focus on a few favored ecosystem services (generally provisioning services) has led to ecosystem degradation globally, including catchment systems and their capacities to support human well-being. Increasing recognition of the multiple benefits provided by ecosystems is slowly being translated into policy and some areas of practice, although there remains a significant shortfall in the incorporation of a systemic perspective into operation management and decision-making tools. Nevertheless, a range of ecosystem-based solutions to issues as diverse as flooding and green space provision in the urban environment offers hope for improving habitat and optimization of beneficial services. The value of catchment ecosystem processes and their associated services is also being increasingly recognized and internalized by the water industry, improving water quality and quantity through catchment land management rather than at greater expense in the treatment costs of contaminated water abstracted lower in catchments. Parallel recognition of the value of working with natural processes, rather than “defending” built assets when catchment hydrology is adversely affected by unsympathetic upstream development, is being progressively incorporated into flood risk management policy. This focus on wider catchment processes also yields a range of cobenefits for fishery, wildlife, amenity, flood risk, and other interests, which may be optimized if multiple stakeholders and their diverse value systems are included in decision-making processes. Ecosystem services, particularly implemented as a central element of the ecosystem approach, provide an integrated framework for building in these different perspectives and values, many of them formerly excluded, into commercial and resource management decision-making processes, thereby making tractable the integrative aspirations of sustainable development. This can help redress deeply entrenched inherited assumptions, habits, and vested interests, replacing them in many management situations with wider recognition of the multiple values of ecosystems and their services. Global interest in taking an ecosystem approach is promoting novel scientific and policy thinking, yet there is a shortfall in its translation into practical management tools. Professional associations may have key roles to play in breaking down barriers to the “mainstreaming” of systemic perspectives into common practice, particularly through joining u different sectors of society essential to their implementation and ongoing adaptive management. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 252–259. © 2012 SETAC

Ecosystem services as a concept and guiding principle are enjoying wide popularity and endorsement from high-level policy thinkers to industry as support for sustainability goals continue to grow. However, explicit incorporation of ecosystem services into decision making still lacks practical implementation at more local scales and faces significant regulatory and technical constraints. Risk assessment represents an example of a regulatory process for which guidance exists that makes it challenging to incorporate ecosystem service endpoints. Technical constraints exist in the quantification of the relationships between ecological functions and services and endpoints valued by humans, and the complexity of those interactions with respect to bundling and stacking. In addition, ecosystem services, by their very definition, represent an anthropogenic construct with no inherent ecological value, which, in practical terms, requires a far more inclusionary decision making process explicitly incorporating a greater diversity of stakeholder values. Despite these constraints, it is possible, given a commitment to sustainable decision making, to simplify the process based on strategic outcomes (e.g., identifying desired end-states in general terms). Decision analytic techniques provide a mechanism for evaluating tradeoffs across key ecosystem services valued by stakeholders and to develop criteria drawn from the entire spectrum of stakeholders in evaluating potential alternatives. This article highlights several examples of ways in which ecosystem service endpoints can be incorporated into the decision-making process. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 260–268. © 2013 SETAC

The reason for expressing ecological protection goals in terms of ecosystem services is to make a connection between ecosystems and what people get out of them in terms of marketed goods and nonmarketed welfare. Here our focus will be on how the ecosystem services framework is and can be applied to the ecological risk assessment (ERA) of chemicals. We provide 2 contrasting examples of how the ecosystem services framework is currently being applied in regulatory risk assessment, and we discuss the challenges and knowledge gaps that need to be addressed if such a framework is to substantially improve ERAs and their ability to inform management decisions. We make the point that formulating protection goals in terms of ecosystem services only makes sense if they can be used in managing environmental impacts and if they are useful in informing the risk assessments behind these. Ecosystem services can make a contribution to management by connecting ecosystem structure and process to what is valued, and analyzing risk in this context is a way of making risk assessment more policy- and value-relevant. Using an ecosystem services framework to its fullest potential to support ERA will require the successful development of a suite of coupled Valuation Methods, Ecological Production Functions, and Mechanistic Effect Models that will require the establishment of strong multidisciplinary collaborations among ecologists, computer scientists, social scientists, and possibly others. In addition, buy-in from environmental decision makers and other stakeholders will be crucial. Some progress is being made on the research front, and the implementation of new legislation is providing incentives for developing risk assessment outputs that are much more directly related to environmental protection goals than those used currently. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 269–275. © 2012 SETAC

A large number of biological indicators have been proposed over the years for assessing soil quality. Although many of those have been applied in monitoring schemes across Europe, no consensus exists on the extent to which these indicators might perform best and how monitoring schemes can be further optimized in terms of scientific and policy relevance. Over the past decade, developments in environmental monitoring and risk assessment converged toward the use of indicators and endpoints that are related to soil functioning and ecosystem services. In view of the proposed European Union (EU) Soil Framework Directive, there is an urgent need to identify and evaluate indicators for soil biodiversity and ecosystem services. The recently started integrated project, Ecological Function and Biodiversity Indicators in European Soils (EcoFINDERS), aims to address this specific issue within the EU Framework Program FP7. Here, we 1) discuss how to use the concept of ecosystem services in soil monitoring, 2) review former and ongoing monitoring schemes, and 3) present an analysis of metadata on biological indicators in some EU member states. Finally, we discuss our experiences in establishing a logical sieve approach to devise a monitoring scheme for a standardized and harmonized application at European scale. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 276–284. © 2013 SETAC

Dietary Hg exposure was modeled for Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), Eastern song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), and Eastern screech owl (Otus asio) nesting on the contaminated South River floodplain (Virginia, USA). Parameterization of Monte-Carlo models required formal expert elicitation to define bird body weight and feeding ecology characteristics because specific information was either unavailable in the published literature or too difficult to collect reliably by field survey. Mercury concentrations and weights for candidate food items were obtained directly by field survey. Simulations predicted the probability that an adult bird during breeding season would ingest specific amounts of Hg during daily foraging and the probability that the average Hg ingestion rate for the breeding season of an adult bird would exceed published rates reported to cause harm to other birds (>100 ng total Hg/g body weight per day). Despite the extensive floodplain contamination, the probabilities that these species' average ingestion rates exceeded the threshold value were all <0.01. Sensitivity analysis indicated that overall food ingestion rate was the most important factor determining projected Hg ingestion rates. Expert elicitation was useful in providing sufficiently reliable information for Monte-Carlo simulation. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 285–293. © 2013 SETAC

Despite various attempts to establish population models as standard tools in pesticide risk assessment, population models still receive limited acceptance by risk assessors and authorities in Europe. A main criticism of risk assessors is that population models are often not, or not sufficiently, validated. Hence the realism of population-level risk assessments conducted with such models remains uncertain. We therefore developed an individual-based population model for the common vole, Microtus arvalis, and demonstrate how population models can be validated in great detail based on published data. The model is developed for application in pesticide risk assessment, therefore, the validation covers all areas of the biology of the common vole that are relevant for the analysis of potential effects and recovery after application of pesticides. Our results indicate that reproduction, survival, age structure, spatial behavior, and population dynamics reproduced from the model are comparable to field observations. Also interannual population cycles, which are frequently observed in field studies of small mammals, emerge from the population model. These cycles were shown to be caused by the home range behavior and dispersal. As observed previously in the field, population cycles in the model were also stronger for longer breeding season length. Our results show how validation can help to evaluate the realism of population models, and we discuss the importance of taking field methodology and resulting bias into account. Our results also demonstrate how population models can help to test or understand biological mechanisms in population ecology. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 294–307. © 2012 SETAC

Lemna spp. are the standard test species representing aquatic macrophytes in the current risk assessment schemes for herbicides and plant growth regulators in the European Union and North America. At a Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) 2008 workshop on Aquatic Macrophyte Risk Assessment for Pesticides (AMRAP), a Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) working group was formed to address uncertainties about the sensitivity of Lemna spp. relative to other aquatic macrophyte species. For 11 herbicides and 3 fungicides for which relevant and reliable data were found for at least 6 macrophyte species, SSDs were fitted using lognormal regression. The positions of L. gibba (the most commonly tested Lemna species) and Myriophyllum spicatum (for which standardized test methods are under development) in each SSD were determined where data were available. The sensitivity of standard algal test species required for pesticide registration in the United States under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) relative to the macrophytes in each SSD was also examined (algae were not included in the SSD). L. gibba was among the most sensitive macrophyte species for approximately 50% of the chemicals examined. M. spicatum was among the most sensitive macrophytes for approximately 25% of the chemicals. In most cases, the lowest FIFRA algal species endpoint was lower than the most sensitive macrophyte endpoint. Although no single species consistently represented the most sensitive aquatic plant species, for 12 of 14 chemicals L. gibba and the FIFRA algae included an endpoint near or below the 5th percentile of the macrophyte SSD. For the other compounds, M. spicatum was the most sensitive species of all aquatic plants considered. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 308–318. © 2012 SETAC

Using RIO Tronics utility meter products as an industrial case study, the numeric Fraunhofer Toxic Potential Indicator (TPI) assessment tool is used to determine high impact materials with the aim of reducing the content of inherently toxic substances in these products. However, because product redesign with alternative materials affects entire components, overall component toxicity potential must also be explored. To achieve this, material TPI scores are aggregated into component TPI scores by 2 methods: 1) the Sum-Weighted Component TPI method, which considers the mass of materials in the component to assign an overall score, and 2) the Max Component TPI method, which scores the component with the highest impact material. With consideration of uncertainties from materials' toxicity information and mass estimates, key results from both scoring methods prioritized components that contain acrylonitrile-based polymers, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and stainless steel. Furthermore, an alternative materials assessment is carried out to identify less-toxic substitutes to meet cost and technical constraints. Substitute materials such as Al alloys for stainless steel and high-density polyethylene for PVC show promise for a combination of toxicity reduction and cost-effectiveness. The new screening methodology described can help product designers systematically benchmark toxicity potential in parallel to cost and functionality. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 319–328. © 2012 SETAC

The financial, socioeconomic, and ecological impacts of wildfire continue to challenge federal land management agencies in the United States. In recent years, policymakers and managers have increasingly turned to the field of risk analysis to better manage wildfires and to mitigate losses to highly valued resources and assets (HVRAs). Assessing wildfire risk entails the interaction of multiple components, including integrating wildfire simulation outputs with geospatial identification of HVRAs and the characterization of fire effects to HVRAs. We present an integrated and systematic risk assessment framework that entails 3 primary analytical components: 1) stochastic wildfire simulation and burn probability modeling to characterize wildfire hazard, 2) expert-based modeling to characterize fire effects, and 3) multicriteria decision analysis to characterize preference structures across at-risk HVRAs. We demonstrate application of this framework for a wildfire risk assessment performed on the Little Belts Assessment Area within the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, United States. We devote particular attention to our approach to eliciting and encapsulating expert judgment, in which we: 1) adhered to a structured process for using expert judgment in ecological risk assessment, 2) used as our expert base local resource scientists and fire/fuels specialists who have a direct connection to the specific landscape and HVRAs in question, and 3) introduced multivariate response functions to characterize fire effects to HVRAs that consider biophysical variables beyond fire behavior. We anticipate that this work will further the state of wildfire risk science and will lead to additional application of risk assessment to inform land management planning. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013; 9: 329–342. © 2012 SETAC