Endpoints and Indicators in Ecological Risk Assessments

摘要

Ecological risk assessments, in contrast to health assessments, focus on populations, communities, and ecosystems rather than individuals. Assessments at these scales require the appropriate strategies for integrating environmental values with the ecological endpoints that are the focus of the risk assessment and the indicators that are actually measured. The scale dilemma is most apparent when the ecological endpoints represent populations, communities, and ecosystems, but the measured indicators come from the molecular, cellular, and organism levels of organization.