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ECOTOXicology Knowledgebase: Presentation and demonstration to the University of Minnesota’s Natural Resources Research Institute
Citation:
Olker, J., C. Elonen, AND D. Hoff. ECOTOXicology Knowledgebase: Presentation and demonstration to the University of Minnesota’s Natural Resources Research Institute. U of MN Natural Resources Research Institute seminar, Duluth, MN, October 22, 2019. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.11770944
Impact/Purpose:
The ECOTOX Knowledgebase is a comprehensive, publicly available application providing chemical environmental toxicity data on aquatic life, terrestrial plants and wildlife compiled from over 49,000 references covering over 11,000 chemicals and almost 13,000 species. ECOTOX data are used for all ecological risk assessments supporting pesticide registrations and re-registrations, all ambient water quality criteria for chemicals published since 1985, site-specific water quality criteria (by EPA Regions, States, and Tribes), and assessments used in emergency response. This seminar describes the ECOTOX systematic review and data extraction procedures, demonstrates how to access the data in ECOTOX, and presents several relevant examples on how ECOTOX data and recent advancement support environmental research and risk assessment. These examples include the recent efforts to comprehensively and systematically assemble and describe available evidence for ecological effects of PFAS, and availability of data on compounds found in deconstruction materials.
Description:
The ECOTOX Knowledgebase (www.epa.gov/ecotox/) is a nationally and internationally recognized source of curated single-chemical toxicity data for aquatic life, terrestrial plants, and wildlife. This publicly available database currently includes data on more than 11,000 chemicals from over 49,000 references. ECOTOX data are used for all ecological risk assessments supporting pesticide registrations and re-registrations, all ambient water quality criteria for chemicals published since 1985, site-specific water quality criteria (by EPA Regions, States, and Tribes), and assessments used in emergency response. A significantly enhanced interface (v5.0) of the ECOTOX Knowledgebase was released in 2018. Advances include the integration of improved and computationally automated literature search strategies for data curation, and inclusion of more mechanistic (e.g., genetic, enzymatic) and pathway-based (e.g., hormonal, cellular) data to better align with the evolution of toxicity testing. This newly released ECOTOX user interface has enhanced functionality for searching and exploring data, with interactive data visualization capabilities. Further, links to other EPA tools (e.g., CompTox Chemistry Dashboard) and databases were integrated, laying the foundation for future interoperability. Presented here is an overview of the ECOTOX processes, demonstration of how to access data in ECOTOX and examples of how ECOTOX continues to support environmental research and risk assessment. These examples include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and compounds found in deconstruction materials. The demonstration highlights how the new and improved features in ECOTOX allow researchers and risk assessors to explore, visualize, identify, and download curated toxicity effects data that best match exposure scenarios, species of interest, and most appropriate assessment and measurement endpoints for developing or addressing focused research questions and decision-making.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: ECOTOXicology Knowledgebase: Presentation and demonstration to the University of Minnesota’s Natural Resources Research Institute
OLKER-ECOTOX_NRRI_SLIDES.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 7598.686 KB, about PDF)