Risks of Toxic Contaminants to Exploited Fish Populations: Influence of LifeHistory, Data Uncertainty and Exploitation Intensity

摘要

Use of toxicity test data for population-level risk assessment was investigatedas follows: (1) the influence of life history characteristics of menhaden and striped bass on vulnerability of contaminant-induced stress; (2) the importance of test data availability; and (3) the influence of exploitation intensity. Menhaden and striped bass differed in terms of their capacity to sustain the same level of contaminant-induced mortality. Changes in exploitation intensity affect the responses of both populations to the same level of additional contaminant-induced mortality. However, the quantitative effects of both factors were small compared to the uncertainty associated with estimating long-term effects from short-term tests or QSARs.