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Integration of ecosystem science into radioecology: A consensus perspective

Olin Rhodes 1 Francois Bréchignac Clare Bradshaw 2 Thomas Hinton Carmel Mothersill 3 John Arnone Doug Aubrey Lawrence Barnthouse James Beasley Andrea Bonisoli-Alquati Lindsay Boring Albert Bryan Krista Capps Bernard Clément 4 Austin Coleman Caitlin Condon Fanny Coutelot 5 Timothy Devol Guha Dharmarajan Dean Fletcher Wes Flynn Garth Gladfelder Travis Glenn Susan Hendricks Ken Ishida Tim Jannik Larry Kapustka Ulrik Kautsky Robert Kennamer 1 Wendy Kuhne Stacey Lance Gennadiy Laptyev Cara Love Lisa Manglass Nicole Martinez Teresa Mathews Arthur Mckee William Mcshea Steve Mihok Gary Mills Ben Parrott Brian Powell Evgeny Pryakhin Ann Rypstra David Scott John Seaman Colin Seymour 6 Maryna Shkvyria Amelia Ward David White Michael Wood Jess Zimmerman
1 SREL - Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
2 Södertörn University College
3 UCC - University College Cork
4 LEHNA - Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés
5 Géoressources et environnement
6 McMaster Univ, Med Phys & Appl Radiat Sci Dept, Hamilton, ON, Canada
Abstract : In the Fall of 2016 a workshop was held which brought together over 50 scientists from the ecological and radio- logical fields to discuss feasibility and challenges of reintegrating ecosystem science into radioecology. There is a growing desire to incorporate attributes of ecosystem science into radiological risk assessment and radioecological research more generally, fueled by recent advances in quantification of emergent ecosystem at- tributes and the desire to accurately reflect impacts of radiological stressors upon ecosystem function. This paper is a synthesis of the discussions and consensus of the workshop participant's responses to three primary questions, which were: 1) How can ecosystem science support radiological risk assessment? 2) What ecosystem level endpoints potentially could be used for radiological risk assessment? and 3) What inference strategies and associated methods would be most appropriate to assess the effects of radionuclides on ecosystem structure and function? The consensus of the participants was that ecosystem science can and should support radiological risk assessment through the incorporation of quantitative metrics that reflect ecosystem functions which are sensi- tive to radiological contaminants. The participants also agreed that many such endpoints exit or are thought to exit and while many are used in ecological risk assessment currently, additional data need to be collected that link the causal mechanisms of radiological exposure to these endpoints. Finally, the participants agreed that ra- diological risk assessments must be designed and informed by rigorous statistical frameworks capable of reveal- ing the causal inference tying radiological exposure to the endpoints selected for measurement.
Keywords : Ecosystem ecology Ecosystem health Ecotoxicology Radioecology Radionuclides Risk assessment
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Contributor : Nathalie Lyvet <>
Submitted on : Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - 5:49:18 PM
Last modification on : Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - 3:31:27 AM

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UNIV-LYON1 | BIOENVIS | ENTPE | UNIV-BORDEAUX-MONTAIGNE | CNRS | UDL | INRAE

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Olin Rhodes, Francois Bréchignac, Clare Bradshaw, Thomas Hinton, Carmel Mothersill, et al.. Integration of ecosystem science into radioecology: A consensus perspective. Science of the Total Environment, Elsevier, 2020, 740, pp.140031. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140031⟩. ⟨hal-02870557⟩

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