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Improvement on species sensitivity distribution methods for deriving site-specific water quality criteria

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Abstract

Species sensitivity distribution (SSD) is the most common method used to derive water quality criteria, but there are still issues to be resolved. Here, issues associated with application of SSD methods, including species selection, plotting position, and cutoff point setting, are addressed. A preliminary improvement to the SSD approach based on post-stratified sampling theory is proposed. In the improved method, selection of species is based on biota of a specific basin, and the whole species in the specific ecosystem are considered. After selecting species to be included and calculating the cumulative probability, a new method to set the critical threshold for protection of ecosystem-level structure and function is proposed. The alternative method was applied in a case study in which a water quality criterion (WQC) was derived for ammonia in the Songhua River (SHR), China.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project (2014ZX07502-002), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21307165), and Special Fund for Environmental Scientific Research in the Public Interest (201309008). Prof. Giesy was supported by the program of 2012 “High Level Foreign Experts” (#GDW20123200120) funded by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, the P.R. of China to Nanjing University, and the Einstein Professor Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was also supported by the Canada Research Chair program, a Visiting Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Biology and Chemistry, and State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Yeyao Wang, Lingsong Zhang, Fansheng Meng & Yuexi Zhou

  2. China National Environmental Monitoring Center, Beijing, 100012, China

    Yeyao Wang, Xiaowei Jin & Fang Liu

  3. Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

    John P. Giesy

Authors
  1. Yeyao Wang
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  2. Lingsong Zhang
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  3. Fansheng Meng
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  4. Yuexi Zhou
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  5. Xiaowei Jin
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  6. John P. Giesy
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  7. Fang Liu
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Correspondence to Lingsong Zhang.

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Responsible editor: Thomas Braunbeck

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Wang, Y., Zhang, L., Meng, F. et al. Improvement on species sensitivity distribution methods for deriving site-specific water quality criteria. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 5271–5282 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3783-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3783-x

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