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Mesocosms in ecotoxicology (1): Outdoor aquatic systems
T Caquet1, L Lagadic, S R Sheffield
1INRA, Equipe d'Ecotoxicology Aquatique, Station Commune de Recherche en Ichtyophysiologie, Biodiversité et Environment, Rennes, France.
Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology
|April 13, 2000
Summary
Aquatic mesocosms offer realistic environmental risk assessment for chemicals by integrating ecological and toxicological parameters. Optimizing their design and duration ensures reliable data for predicting ecosystem-level impacts.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Ecotoxicology
- Ecosystem Ecology
Background:
- Aquatic mesocosms, artificial ecosystems, have been utilized in ecotoxicology for two decades to assess chemical impacts.
- They offer a refined approach over traditional methods by allowing simultaneous observation of individual, population, community, and ecosystem responses.
- Despite initial promise, large-scale mesocosm studies faced challenges in cost-effectiveness, leading to a decline in regulatory use by the 1990s.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review key features of outdoor aquatic mesocosms for environmental risk assessment of chemicals.
- To emphasize optimization strategies for enhancing the utility of mesocosms in chemical risk assessment.
- To discuss the balance between ecological realism and replicability in mesocosm design for reliable ecotoxicological data.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature and practices concerning aquatic mesocosm design and application in ecotoxicology.
- Analysis of factors influencing mesocosm performance, including size, initial composition, ecological maturity, and experimental duration.
- Discussion of statistical approaches, including nonparametric and multivariate analyses, for processing mesocosm data.
Main Results:
- Mesocosms uniquely combine ecological realism with controlled physicochemical and biological parameters for assessing contaminant effects.
- Ecological maturity and appropriate time scales (duration and sampling frequency) are critical for capturing both direct and indirect effects.
- Replicability, achieved through system simplification while preserving key ecological features, is often preferable to absolute realism for robust risk assessment.
Conclusions:
- Optimized aquatic mesocosms are valuable tools for environmental risk assessment, bridging the gap between laboratory and field studies.
- Careful consideration of design, ecological maturity, experimental duration, and statistical analysis is crucial for reliable ecotoxicological predictions.
- Mesocosm studies provide essential data for understanding chemical impacts at multiple biological organization levels, aiding in predicting ecosystem-level changes.