Integral Scientist Publishes on Predicting Impacts of Chemicals on Delivery of Ecosystem Services

Integral scientist Rob Pastorok, Ph.D., has coauthored an article published in Science of The Total Environment, titled “Predicting impacts of chemicals from organisms to ecosystem service delivery: A case study of endocrine disruptor effects on trout.” Using a hypothetical case study of two species of trout, Dr. Pastorok and coauthors examine the impact of human-derived estrogen on male spawning in trout populations and discovered that impacts on populations are not proportional to impacts on individuals. Their study explores how mechanistic modeling can be used to predict whether and how biological responses of species of trout to an endocrine disruptor (i.e., human-derived estrogen) at suborganismal levels translate into impacts on ecosystem services—goods or services that are directly consumed or enjoyed by a human beneficiary. This type of approach may be particularly helpful for site-specific analyses of tradeoffs and synergies among ecosystem services as part of, for example, natural resource damage assessment. The paper is one product of an expert work group of the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis.

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Dr. Pastorok is internationally recognized for his expertise in ecological modeling and risk assessment. An ecologist with more than 30 years of experience, he has led the development of risk management decision frameworks, ecotoxicological empirical methods, and new ecological models to assess population- and ecosystem-level effects of chemicals and other stressors. Dr. Pastorok has designed and taught courses on population and ecological modeling, authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, and was the lead author and editor of the book Ecological Modeling in Risk Assessment: Chemical Effects on Populations, Ecosystems, and Landscapes.

For more information, contact Dr. Pastorok at rpastorok@integral-corp.com.