Fish bioaccumulation and biomarkers in environmental risk assessment: a review

An expert meeting was organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and held in Stockholm on 15-18 June 1997. The objective of this meeting was to derive consensus toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxinlike polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) for both human, fish, and wildlife risk assessment. Based on existing literature data, TEFs were (re)evaluated and either revised (mammals) or established (fish and birds). A few mammalian WHO-TEFs were revised, including 1,2,3,7,8-pentachlorinated DD, octachlorinated DD, octachlorinated DF, and PCB 77. These mammalian TEFs are also considered applicable for humans and wild mammalian species. Furthermore, it was concluded that there was insufficient in vivo evidence to continue the use of TEFs for some di-ortho PCBs, as suggested earlier by Ahlborg et al. [Chemosphere 28:1049-1067 (1994)]. In addition, TEFs for fish and birds were determined. The WHO working group attempted to harmonize TEFs across different taxa to the extent possible. However, total synchronization of TEFs was not feasible, as there were orders of a magnitude difference in TEFs between taxa for some compounds. In this respect, the absent or very low response of fish to mono-ortho PCBs is most noticeable compared to mammals and birds. Uncertainties that could compromise the TEF concept were also reviewed, including nonadditive interactions, differences in shape of the dose-response curve, and species responsiveness. In spite of these uncertainties, it was concluded that the TEF concept is still the most plausible and feasible approach for risk assessment of halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons with dioxinlike properties.

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Toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) for PCBs, PCDDs, PCDFs for humans and wildlife

Levels and trends of brominated flame retardants in the European environment.

A predator's per capita feeding rate on prey, or its functional response, provides a foundation for predator-prey theory. Since 1959, Holling's prey-dependent Type II functional response, a model that is a function of prey abundance only, has served as the basis for a large literature on predator-prey theory. We present statistical evidence from 19 predator-prey systems that three predator-dependent functional responses (Beddington- DeAngelis, Crowley-Martin, and Hassell-Varley), i.e., models that are functions of both prey and predator abundance because of predator interference, can provide better descrip- tions of predator feeding over a range of predator-prey abundances. No single functional response best describes all of the data sets. Given these functional forms, we suggest use of the Beddington-DeAngelis or Hassell-Varley model when predator feeding rate becomes independent of predator density at high prey density and use of the Crowley-Martin model when predator feeding rate is decreased by higher predator density even when prey density is high.

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Functional responses with predator interference: viable alternatives to the holling type ii model

Organ structures and correlated metabolic features (e.g. metabolic rate) have often taken as fixed attributes of fully grown individual vertebrates. When measurements of these attributes became available they were often used as representative values for the species, disregarding the specific conditions during which the mesurement were made. Evidence is accumulating that the functional size of organs and aspects of the metabolic physiology of an individual may show great flexibility over timescales of weeks and even days depending on physiological status, environmental conditions and behavioural goals. This flexibility is a way for animals to cope successfully with a much wider range of conditions occurring during various life-cycle events than fixed metabolic machinery would allow. Such phenotypic flexibility is likely to be a common adaptive syndrome, typical of vertebrates living in variable environments.

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Rapid reversible changes in organ size as a component of adaptive behaviour

Rock slopes and gravel beaches under wave attack The stability of slopes consisring of loose materials under wave attack have been investigated with the aid of small and large scale physical models. These slopes can be divided into rubble mound breakwaters, rubble mound revetments, rock beaches and gravel or shingle beaches. The structures may be treated as either statically or dynamically stable. No displacement of material or only very little is allowed for statically stabie structures. Displacement of stanes is called daaage. Dynamically stable structures are characterized by the forming of a profile under wave attack. In this case damage is nat important, but the developed profile. This study describes the range from "no damage" to statically stable structures up to the profile development of very small (4 mm) shingle under prototype circumstan-

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Rock slopes and gravel beaches under wave attack

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EurOtop wave overtopping of sea defences and related structures: assessment manual

Data sets on CB concentrations in fish-eating mammals from five laboratories were combined to test and refine a pharmacokinetic model. Clear differences in PCB patterns were observed between species. The ability to metabolize chlorobiphenyl (CB) congeners with vicinal H-atoms only in the ortho- and meta-positions and with one ortho-chlorine substituent generally increased in the order otter < cetaceans (harbor porpoise, common dolphin) < phocid seals (harbor and grey seal), but the metabolism of congeners with vicinal H-atoms in the meta- and para-positions and with two ortho-chlorines increased in the order cetaceans < seals < otter. Both categories of congeners are probably metabolized by different families of cytochrome P450 (1A and 2B) of which levels apparently differed between the cetaceans, the pinnipeds, and the otter. Within-species CB patterns differed in a concentration-dependent manner. The induction of cytochrome P450 enzymes offers the most likely explanation for this phenomenon, but starvation could have a similar effect on occasion.

Concentration-dependent changes of PCB patterns in fish-eating mammals: structural evidence for induction of cytochrome P450

We studied differences in body composition and basal metabolic rate (BMR, measured in postabsorptive birds under thermoneutral conditions at night) in two subspecies of red knots, Calidris canutus: one that spends the nonbreeding season under energetically costly climatic conditions at temperate latitudes (subspecies islandica in western Europe) and one that winters in the hot and humid tropics (subspecies canutus in West and South Africa). To examine whether the possible differences would be upheld under identical conditions, we kept both groups in captivity as well Body composition was quantified with respect to the fat and lean components of 10 "organs" (breast muscles, leg muscles, stomach, intestine, liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, and the skin, and skeleton and attached muscle). Captive birds had lighter lean tissues than wild birds, especially those of the stomach, intestine, kidneys, and liver (the nutritional organs). During the northern winter wild islandica knots had higher lean masses than canut...

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Variability in basal metabolic rate of a long-distance migrant shorebird (Red Knot, Calidris canutus) reflects shifts in organ sizes

After an extensive series of 2-D model tests on the overtopping response of various caisson breakwaters, general conceptual design formulae and graphs have been derived which relate the mean discharge with the relative freeboard. The influence of geometrical changes is described by reduction factors with reference to the pure vertical structure. A simple correlation has been made with the overtopping performance of sloping structures. Overtopping volumes per wave were also measured and fitted with a universal probability function; their effects on model persons and cars behind the crownwall were statistically evaluated, thus allowing an upgrading of the existing criteria for the admissible overtopping on breakwaters.

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J.W. Van der Meer

Papers

Rock slopes and gravel beaches under wave attack

EurOtop wave overtopping of sea defences and related structures: assessment manual

Concentration-dependent changes of PCB patterns in fish-eating mammals: structural evidence for induction of cytochrome P450

Variability in basal metabolic rate of a long-distance migrant shorebird (Red Knot, Calidris canutus) reflects shifts in organ sizes

Wave Overtopping on Vertical and Composite Breakwaters