Citation:

Feng, C., F. Wu, Y. Mu, W. Meng, S. Dyer, M. Fan, Sandy Raimondo, AND M. Barron. Interspecies Correlation Estimation - Applications in Water Quality Criteria and Ecological Risk Assessment. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Indianapolis, IN, 47:11382-11383, (2013).

Impact/Purpose:

Viewpoint article on use of ICE in SSDs

Description:

Water quality criteria (WQC) designate the maximum concentrations of water-borne toxicants that do not adversely affect specific protection goals under certain natural conditions. As the foundation of water quality standards, WQC provide a critical scientific basis for environmental protection agencies to protect aquatic ecosystems. The extent of WQC related investigations can be regarded as an indicator of the national status of aquatic environmental protection. Therefore, some developed countries have invested substantial resources in developing WQC. They have undertaken WQC research for decades and have established comprehensive guidelines. The vast majority of WQC are derived using assessment factors and/or species sensitivity distributions (SSD). The SSD is the preferred method for derivation of WQCs as they are cumulative distribution functions of toxicity values for multiple species that estimate a hazard level that is protective of most species within the distribution. While SSDs based on measured toxicity values can provide a strong level of confidence for environmental protection, there is still some uncertainty in their applicability for untested species. Additionally, SSD development has been limited to a relatively few chemicals because of the requirement for toxicity data for a broad diversity of taxa. Interspecies correlation estimations (ICE) models may provide great assistance for addressing the development of WQC that are protective of species that cannot be tested.

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