Ecological Risks Perspectives from Poland and the United States (1990) / Chapter Skim
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Assessment and Management of Ecological Risks
Assessment and Management of Ecological Risks
Pages 3-13
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From page 3... ...
These gifts from the evolutionary history of our planet vary greatly from continent to continent, country to country, locality to locality, and time to time (Conable, 1987; Brundtland, 1987~. In the cases of Poland and the United States, our natural heritage includes: a wide diversity of valuable plants, animals, and microorganisms; abundant air and water; productive soils, farmlands, forests, and aquatic ecosystems; beautiful mountains, lakes, streams, and rivers; valuable wilderness, coastal areas, wetlands, and groundwaters.
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Success in the conservation, wise use, and protection of ecosystems and other natural resources requires that scientists, industrial and political leaders, and citizens in every aspect of society learn a great deal more about: the distinctive features and dynamics of the ecosystems and other natural resources of our countries; · the industrial, social, political, technical, and economic systems by which these resources are managed; and · appropriate methods by which to assess the nature and magnitude of risks to ecosystems caused by both deliberate and inadvertent human activities. Such understanding is needed by citizens and industry leaders in every local community or district, as well as within the state and federal governments of our own and neighboring countries (fillet and Murota, 1987~.
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components. The biotic components consist of three general types of living organisms: · producers: green plants that capture the energy of the sun and produce organic matter; · consumers: including humans and other animals that utilize as their energy sources the food materials stored by producers; and · decomposers: mostly microorganisms that obtain their energy by breaking down and converting the dead bodies of organisms into simpler compounds.
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. These external forces or stress factors can occur in the form of: medskip · excessive impute of nutrients, toxic pollutant, pesticides, etc; · disturbance of normal energy flows, such as by thermal pollution around a cooling tower or global warming due to so-called "greenhouse gases"; drastic changes in the rates of ecosystem processes, such as by drying of peatlands or flooding of tropical grasslands, thus speeding up or slowing down decomposition processes; physical destruction of ecosystems, e.g., by compaction of soils in city parks, excessive grazing of rangelands, burning of forests or grasslands, or covering with heavy loads of volcanic or industrial dusts; or · introduction of virulent pathogens such as parasitic, pathogenic, or predacious fungi, insects, bacteria, viruses, etc.
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In Chapter 8 of this volume, Breymeyer proposes production and decomposition of organic matter as measurable ecosystem processes at risk. Similarly, in Chapter 15, Ryszkowski proposes circulation of some nutrient elements in agricultural landscapes as a measurable process at risk Thus, most ecological risk assessments involve identification of one or more of the following: · the types and species of organisms that are at risk within a given ecosystem; · the rate of production of organic matter and/or other ecosystem processes; · the nature, concentrations, and timing of pollutant chemical exposures that occur within the system; · the nature and magnitude of the response of the organisms or ecosystems to the stress imposed by pollutant chemicals (dose/response relationships)
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From page 8... ...
In Poland, both air and water quality have been decreasing over the past 30 to 40 years as the country has sought to use its substantial reserves of high-sulfur coal in heavy industry. In the United States, both air and water quality have improved in many parts of the country as the economy has shifted away from its earlier dependence on heavy industry and responded to the requirements of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972.
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In the eastern United States, by contrast, the most severe air quality problem is ozone and other photochemical oxidants which accumulate in the atmosphere mainly in the eastern half of the country and in southern California. In Poland, the most important air pollutants are emitted directly from industrial smoke stacks in the form of gaseous sulfur dioxide and industrial dusts.
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Thus, much of the country receives a heavy dose of sulfur and dust pollution in all seasons of the year. The area of highest ozone pollution in the eastern United States forms a broad band across the southern part of the country (see Figure 2~.
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A proposal for establishment of a SCOPE synthesis of data on organic matter budgets. Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Resources, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
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From page 13... ...
Office of Environmental Processes and Effects Research, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., pp.
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