Hobart

Seminar Abstract

Friday 1 August 2008, *2.00pm* (Tas time)
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Wayne G Landis
Director, Institute of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Huxley College of the Environment
Western Washington University, USA

Regional Scale Ecological Risk Assessment Applied to Natural Resource Management

Ecological risk assessment originated for the management of contaminated sites and the registration of new chemicals and pesticides. Usually there were only one or a few chemicals under consideration and other types of stressors were not considered. In the future, these situations will be seen as a special and limited application of ecological risk assessment. Ecological risk assessment has potential to be a powerful tool in the management of ecological structures and the services they provide. In managing the species composition of regional ecological structures must take into account the multiple uses of the area, contaminants, outfalls of many types, the introduction of invasive species, the distribution of habitat types, and alterations in land use, transportation corridors, and policy directives from multiple levels of Federal, State and local governments. The Relative Risk Model (RRM) has been applied to the management of valued species, forests and non-indigenous species. The use of the RRM places management actions, sources, stressors, receptors and effects in a landscape context and is robust over a variety of spatial scales and types of stressors. The presentation will provide a brief synopsis of the application of the RRM approach for several case studies. The first scenario is the use of risk assessment in a GAP analysis for salmon production in seven streams that form part of the Georgia Basin drainage. The second case study applies the risk assessment tool to the management of a critical watershed. A third case study is the calculation of risk to a forested system in eastern Oregon USA. It has become clear that regional scale ecological risk assessment should be considered as a robust tool for describing the impacts of many types of policy and management activities.

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Location:
CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
To schedule a seminar, contact:
Bernadette Sloyan, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5152
Thomas Kunz, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
(03) 6232 5076
Natalie Dowling, (Fisheries Modelling) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
(03) 6232 5148
Jillian Enraght-Moony, (seminar administrator) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5320
Communications Manager, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 2265
Margaret Hazelwood, Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2971

Last updated 21/07/09