SREL Reprint #2762

Bioavailability, Toxicity and Risk Relationships in Ecosystems: The Path Ahead

R. Naidu1, N. S. Bolan2, and D. C. Adriano3

1CSIRO Land and Water, Private Mail Bag. No. 2, Glen Osmond, Adelaide, South Australia
2Department of Soil Science, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
3Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, South carolina 29802, USA

Abstract: Remediation of contaminated sites is often established on the basis of risk assessments that rely on both toxicological impact on ecosystem and human health. The success of bioremediation, contaminated site rehabilitation and production of contaminant free food is largely dependent on the availability of the contaminants for plants, animals and microbial biota in the terrestrial environment. Consequently 'bioavailability' is used as the key indicator of potential risk that contaminants pose to both environmental and human health. However, the definition of the term 'bioavailability' and the concept on which it is based are unclear, the methods adopted vary throughout the world and therefore there is no single standard technique for the assessment of either plant availability of contaminants or their ecotoxicological impacts on soil biota. In this book, while attempting to define the bioavailability, we have taken into consideration that bioavailability is a function of both soil, nature of contaminant, species/receptor organisms and environmental perturbations including the duration of contamination (i.e., contaminant aging).

SREL Reprint #2762

Naidu, R., N. Bolan, and D. Adriano. 2003. Bioavailability, toxicity and risk relationships in ecosystems: The path ahead. p. 331-338 In: R. Naidu, V. Gupta, S. S. Rogers, R. Kookana, N. Bolan, and D. Adriano (Eds.). Bioavailability, Toxicity and Risk Relationships in Ecosystems. Science Publishers, Inc.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).