A framework for population-level ecological risk assessment

Since the early development of ecological risk assessment (ERA) methods, risk managers and assessors have worked within an assessment framework derived primarily from human health risk assessment. The general components of the framework consist of a problem formulation, exposure analysis, effects (e.g., toxicological) analysis, and risk characterization, with risk planning and communication steps as major points of interaction between risk managers and risk assessors. In 1992, the Risk Assessment Forum of the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) released a Framework for Ecological Risk Assessment. This framework and subsequent guidance acknowledges population-level and higher (e.g., community and ecosystem) level risk assessments; however, the development of methods in ERA has focused primarily on organismlevel endpoints (e.g., survival, growth and reproduction of organisms).