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Designing the Environmental Results Workshop: Historical Context, Causality and Candidate Species

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Abstract

During the past thirty years, researchers have been documenting the concentrations and effects of persistent toxic substances, such as DDT, PCBs, dioxins and furans, in populations of Great Lakes organisms. In designing the International Joint Commission's Workshop on Environmental Results, the organizers on the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board started from the premise that the selection of indicator organisms for long-term trend analysis requires that the causal relationships between the observed effects and the putative cause should be demonstrated and believed. However, the causal relationships that have been documented have generally been met with skepticism by fellow scientists and by regulatory officials resulting in no agreement on valid indicator organisms. To overcome this skepticism, wildlife, fisheries and human health researchers have adapted the epidemiological criteria used by medical and veterinary researchers for synthesizing the causal evidence. Brief reviews of several candidate species and of their suitability as long term monitors are presented, and the adequacy of monitoring programs for determining trends in the incidence of chemically-induced effects is assessed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Joint Commission, 100 Ouellette Avenue, Windsor, Ontario, N9A 6T3, Canada

    Michael Gilbertson

  2. Canadian Wildlife Service, National Wildlife Research Centre, Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H3, Canada

    Glen Fox

  3. Gale Gleason Environmental Institute, School of Science and Natural Resources, Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, 49783, USA

    William Bowerman

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  3. William Bowerman
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Gilbertson, M., Fox, G. & Bowerman, W. Designing the Environmental Results Workshop: Historical Context, Causality and Candidate Species. Environ Monit Assess 53, 17–55 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006068104699

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