Mean Species Abundance as a Measure of Ecotoxicological Risk

Chemical pollution of surface waters is considered an important driver for recent declines in biodiversity. Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) are commonly used to evaluate the ecological risks of chemical exposure, accounting for variation in interspecies sensitivity. However, SSDs do not reflect the effects of chemical exposure on species abundance, considered an important endpoint in biological conservation. Although complex population modeling approaches lack practical applicability when it comes to the routine practice of lower tier chemical risk assessment, in the present study we show how information from widely available laboratory toxicity tests can be used to derive the change in mean species abundance (MSA) as a function of chemical exposure. These exposure–response MSA relationships combine insights into intraspecies exposure–response relationships and population growth theory. We showcase the practical applicability of our method for cadmium, copper, and zinc, and include a quantification of the associated statistical uncertainty. For all 3 metals, we found that concentrations hazardous for 5% of the species (HC(5)s) based on MSA relationships are systematically higher than SSD‐based HC(5) values. Our proposed framework can be useful to derive abundance‐based ecological protective criteria for chemical exposure, and creates the opportunity to assess abundance impacts of chemical exposure in the context of various other anthropogenic stressors. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:2304–2313. © 2020 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.