Ecological Risks Perspectives from Poland and the United States (1990) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 14-28
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MAKI Exxon Company, USA ELLIS B COWLING North Carolina State University The various chapters of this book were developed to illustrate the current state of knowledge about ecological risks in Poland and the United States.
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The chapter ends with a statement of hope for a future in which ecological risks are assessed and management with greater wisdomnot only in Poland and the United States—but in many other countries of the world as welt Chapter 2 Is the Executive Summary of the book, which you are now reading. ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS Chapters 3 through 6 deal with the fundamental concepts of ecological risk assessment and risk management.
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In Chapter 6, Maki and Slimak discuss the role of ecological risk assessment in environmental decision making. The formal assessment process used by many industries and by the Environmental Protection Agency in
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A scheme is required to separate important changes from less important ones. This scheme ultimately must relate to aspects of ecosystems that humans value and therefore are identified in social objectives or legal regulations such as protection of endangered species, prevention of erosion on construction sites, or maintenance of biological diversity.
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Such comparative analyses of system-level attributes provide a sound conceptual foundation for ecological risk assessments. Air Pollution Impacts The known effects of air pollution and the possible effects of acid deposition on forests have evoked major public concern and a manyfold increase in research in North America in recent years.
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distinguishing the individual and combined effects of airborne pollutant chemicals from those of natural stress factors such as water stress, frost, and biotic pathogens; and · determining effects on mature trees in whole landscapes rather than just the response of individual seedlings to particular stress agents in controlled chamber studies. Improving this knowledge base is complicated by absence of visible symptoms in many cases.
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The impacts of air pollution on a broad regional scale is currently not known because a country-wide survey has not been made. While investigations near sources of pollutants have shown significant decreases in crop yields, these impacted areas also have high soil concentrations of heavy metals which confound correlations with current air pollution.
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Monitoring Ecological Stresses and Effects In Chapter 13, Molski and Dmuchowski describe techniques for monitoring the distribution and intensity of toxic elements in the forest vegetation of Poland. They demonstrate that pine needles are useful bioindicators of the geographic distribution of pollutant elements within the country and show that the accumulation of particular elements within pine needles is a useful index of pollution impacts on vegetation.
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Grodzinska also provides a useful summary of the morphological and physiological characteristics of mosses and the particular features of national parks that make them simple, rapid, inexpensive, and effective means by which to monitor long-term trends in pollution loadings. AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY IMPACTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY In Chapters 15 and 16, Ryszkowski and Johnston give two remarkably contrasting views of the ecological impacts of agricultural and forestry practices on the environment.
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Practices aimed at decreasing chemical contamination of surface waters include decreased dependence on pesticides through increased use of crop rotations and genetically resistant varieties of crops and adoption of integrated pest management practices. IMPACTS ON AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS In Chapters 17 through 19, Hillbricht-ILkowska, Cooper, and Gromiec provide a comparative analysis of pollution impacts on aquatic ecosystems in Poland and the United States.
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Recent trends in chemical analyses suggest that phosphorus loading from human sources is the primary cause. Unfortunately, there are no data on heavy metals and synthetic organic substances to evaluate the toxic chemical loadings to these lakes.
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A monitoring program should be initiated for nitrates, synthetic organic substances, and metallo-organic substances in groundwater and ecological food chains. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT CASE STUDIES In Chapter 20, Trojan presents the results of a two-year comparative analysis of the concepts and methods used in development of environmental policy in several of the socialist countries of Europe, including the USSR, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland.
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Some scientism and industrial and political leaders in both countries were convinced that acid deposition posed a serious threat to sensitive aquatic ecosystems and that significant decreases in emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides should be undertaken immediately. Others were equally convinced that there was not an immediate need for decisions and that time was available for additional research to resolve important uncertainties.
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The principal elements of this conceptual framework include the following steps in a continuous system of ecological risk ecological assessment, and ecological management activities: Step 1: Monitoring programs that provide objective data for analysis of current conditions and trends in the condition of ecosystems; Step 2: Ecological risk assessments that define the scope of existing problems within ecosystems that are now being impacted or may be impacted in the future; Step 3: Development of science-based policy recommendations that will lead to improvement in the condition of the ecosystems shown to be impacted or at risk in Steps 1 and 2 (above) ; Step 4: Definition of environmental limits for continuing economic development and initiation of public education about these environmental limitations; Step 5: Implementation of technologies that will allow for sustained use and enjoyment of the ecosystems that are at risk or of control technologies that will allow presently damaged ecosystems to recover; Step 6: Reassessment and redefinition of needs for environmental monitoring in the light of experience which feeds back to Step 1 once again.
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