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Protection Goals for Aquatic Plants
Citation:
Thursby, G. AND M. Lewis. Protection Goals for Aquatic Plants. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, KS, 9(1):168-169, (2013).
Impact/Purpose:
This is an invited opinion. The text provides a succinct description of the main issues associated with uncertainty for deriving numeric protection goals for aquatic plants. Only the needs are described, how these needs should be met are not discussed.
Description:
Someone once said plants are the ugly stepchildren of the toxicological world. This was not out of lack of respect for plants, but rather reflected the common assumption that aquatic plants were less sensitive than aquatic fauna to chemicals. We now know this is not a valid generalization. Still, too little attention is given to what information would be needed to protect plants. Three primary issues arise when dealing with protection goals for aquatic plants: what species to test, what the relevance of the effects we detect is, and what the level of protection required is. Our experience is primarily with aquatic plants—although much of what follows applies as well to terrestrial plants (and to animals as well).