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Aquatic ecological risk assessment for persistent organochlorine pollutants at the Pearl River Estuary |
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Abstract Aimed at the aquatic ecological risk assessment of the persistent organochlorine pollutants (OCPs) in the nearshore marine environment, an ecological risk assessment method was established to estimate POPs threats to aquatic populations (Trichiurus haumela population) at the Pearl River Estuary, which was divided into five stages (risk source analysis, risk receptor estimation, exposure estimation, damage estimation and total risk assessment). Based on the risk source (DDTs concentration in the seawater and sediments) analysis and risk receptor (Trichiurus haumela population) estimation A bioaccumulation model was used to estimate the DDTs concentration in zooplankton, benthos, and fish and the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation method was used to analyze the uncertainty in the bioaccumulation process. Then the chronic toxicity dose-response relationship, estimated by ICE and ACE software, was used to calculate the mortality rates in different stages with the DDTs concentrations. Last, the demographic modeling (Leslie matrix) was used to assess the ecological risk of DDTs damage on the population. 1.3511% reduction in the biomass of the population was estimated for the maximum probability in 10,000MC simulations, which can be accepted. A new overall ecological risk assessment method was established, which can be used in environmental risk assessment of POPs exposure in multimedia environmental.
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Received: 30 June 2013
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