Use of Chesapeake Bay Restoration Goals Index in ecological risk assessments
- Baker Environmental, Inc., Coraopolis, PA (United States)
Restoration goals for Chesapeake Bay benthic infaunal communities have been developed by the USEPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The Restoration Goals Index (RGI) includes measures that describe characteristics of benthic assemblages expected in habitats having little evidence of environmental stress or disturbance. The RGI includes parameters for biodiversity, life history strategy, subsurface activity, abundance, biomass, and feeding guild. Eight habitat classes were defined by salinity and sediment type to account for natural habitat variability. Ecological risk assessments use measurement endpoints as quantitative expressions of an observed or measured effect of an environmental stressor to evaluate assessment endpoints -- the ecological value to be protected. Many of the same expressions used as measurement endpoints or effect indicators are included in the RGI. The use of the RGI in ecological risk assessments conducted at the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown helped reduced the uncertainty in the risk characterization phase. The RGIs provided a reference condition for refining the natural temporal and spatial variability inherent in benthic infaunal communities. The significance of the risk to aquatic receptors was placed in perspective to the regional conditions in the York River and lower Chesapeake Bay ecosystems.
- OSTI ID:
- 382743
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137-; ISBN 1-880611-03-1; TRN: IM9645%%294
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) world conference, Vancouver (Canada), 5-9 Nov 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Second SETAC world congress (16. annual meeting): Abstract book. Global environmental protection: Science, politics, and common sense; PB: 378 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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