Polychlorinated biphenyls and hudson river white perch: implications for population‐level ecological risk assessment and risk management

Abstract

Risk assessments and risk management decisions concerning risks to wild fish populations resulting from exposures to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and related chemicals have been based primarily on observations of effects of chemicals on individual organisms. Although the development and application of population-level ecological risk-assessment methods is proceeding at a rapid pace, the organism-level approach is still being justified by arguments that population-level ecological risk assessment is in an early stage of development and has not been shown to be reliable. This article highlights the importance of including population-level effects in risk-management decision-making, by examining the effects of exposures to PCBs on fish populations inhabiting the Hudson River, New York, USA, a system in which data have been collected for approximately 30 y concerning both concentrations of PCBs in sediment and fish tissue and the abundance and reproduction of exposed fish populations. We previously tested hypotheses concerning the effects of PCBs on the striped bass population of the Hudson River, and found that the available data conflicted with all of these hypotheses. Here, we report results of similar analyses of effects of historic PCB exposures on the Hudson River white perch population, using an extended data set that recently became available. As with striped bass, we found no correlation between maternal PCB tissue concentrations and any measure of reproductive success in Hudson River white perch during the 30-y period covered by the data set. Together with results of studies performed on fish populations exposed to PCBs at other sites, our results clearly demonstrate that physiological and genetic adaptation, biological compensation, and other ecological processes influence responses of fish populations to PCB exposures and should be considered in risk management decision-making.

Effects on tree swallows exposed to dioxin-like compounds associated with the Tittabawassee River and floodplain near Midland, Michigan, USA

“…We have applied several of these in this assessment. Predicted effects on productivity based on concentrations of PCDD/DF-TEQs WHO-Avian in eggs and nestlings, or in the diet, were compared with nesting success observed for TS in a site-specific multiple lines of evidence assessment of hazard [50,64,[77][78][79]. Sampling a single egg per nest was selected for this assessment, based on previous studies [38,80,81] that indicated that laying order does not affect concentrations, and that exposure is better estimated than from extrapolation from abiotic matrices and can be accounted for in subsequent nesting success calculations.…”

Linking mechanistic toxicology to population models in forecasting recovery from chemical stress: A case study from Jackfish Bay, Ontario, Canada

“…Furthermore, the promotion of long-term studies on natural history and demographics of new species would enhance the ability to investigate AOPs across diverse species. This would, in turn, enable the application of the methodology presented in the present study (of using a biomarker or in situ effects-based measurement in a given local or sentinel species of fish to evaluate toxicity) to be extrapolated at a population scale using population models developed for other species [5,6,[8][9][10]12,58].…”

“…The application of models offers an effective methodology for addressing the toxicity of an increasing number of chemicals and chemical mixtures for risk assessment [3,4,8]. Furthermore, population modeling, in combination with field-based monitoring assessments, may provide the ability to predict population dynamics over time and across sites in response to remedial actions [5,7,[8][9][10][11][12].…”

Polychlorinated biphenyl exposure and fish recruitment from 1988 to 2002 in the upper Hudson River, New York, USA

“…PCBs declined an order of magnitude since the 1970s in adult striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and white perch (Morone americana) in the lower Hudson River (Albany to New York, New York, USA) and during this time, reproductive success was not related to temporal trends in PCBs (Barnthouse et al, 2003(Barnthouse et al, , 2009. In fact, a positive correlation between maternal lipid-based PCBs in white perch and subsequent abundance at age-1 was observed (Barnthouse et al, 2009). In these studies and a more current study (Maceina and Sammons, 2013), PCBs were about an order of magnitude lower than those measured in fish from the upper Hudson River in the early-mid 1990s.…”