Đánh giá rủi ro sinh thái là quá trình đánh giá những tác động bất lợi tiềm năng hoạt động của con người có trong thực vật và động vật tạo nên đánh giá rủi ro sinh thái cũng xem xét các thay đổi gây ra bởi hoạt động của con người làm thay đổi tính năng quan trọng của các hệ thống sinh thái, chẳng hạn như hồ, suối , rừng, hoặc lưu vực sông. Thay đổi con người có thể bao gồm, ví dụ, sự ra đời của một hóa chất mới, chẳng hạn như thuốc trừ. | Chapter 17 Ecological Risk Assessment INTRODUCTION Ecological risk assessment is the process that evaluates the potential adverse effects that human activities have on the plants and animals that make up Ecological risk assessments also consider changes caused by human activities that alter important features of ecological systems such as lakes streams forests or watersheds. Anthropogenic changes may include for example the introduction of a new chemical such as a pesticide to a wheat field or the alteration of a landscape that results from draining or filling a wetland. Scientists often assess how much damage certain human actions may have on the plants or animals in an area in question. The risk assessment process provides a way to develop organize and present scientific information so that it is relevant to environmental decision-making. Ecological risks may be local such as a hazardous waste site they may be regional such as the Pacific Northwest regions of the . or a certain section of the Mississippi River or they may be global such as emission of greenhouse gases atmospheric transport of particulates or global warming. The early 1980s witnessed both the emergence of risk assessment as a regulatory paradigm and the first widespread use of ecological impact assessments to influence regulatory and policy decisions. The use of ecological information for decision-making has expanded slowly through the 1980s as shown by the regulation of diazinon based on its impacts on birds and action taken to tackle acid deposition in In the middle to late 1980s tools and methods for conducting ecological risk assessments began to be standardized with the publication of several documents by . Government agencies such as the National Research Council and the Environmental Protection Agency EPA .2 3 After nearly two decades of effort and experiences ecological risk assessment has become widely known as an important management tool for many .
