Ecological assessment

[4] Abiotic indicators, which may give information on the risks or threats from stressors to ecosystems [5] are comparatively well correlated with sources of pollutants and disturbances but may not reflect ecological end points in themselves.

Correlation of biotic indicators with sources of pollutants and other disturbances is relatively difficult due to the complexity of environmental processes and the multitude of potential stressors.

[8] Critical appraisal: Strategic ecological assessment (SEcA) is required to ensure that proposed new developments are compatible with international obligations to conserve protected habitats and their associated species.

The ability to quantify potential impacts and to estimate their risk of occurrence is strongly dependent on the of national data on the distributions of habitats, species and development proposals.

[14] As a result, assessment methods applied by both consultants and regulatory agencies range from qualitative approaches, such as listings of potential biotic receptors at a contaminated site, to fully quantitative approaches that include detailed exposure estimations, quantitative toxicity comparisons, and supplementary biota sampling to evaluate uptake estimates.