1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Study of a new method of estimating extinction risk for wild populations.
| Project/Area Number |
10640618
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
生態
|
|---|
| Research Institution | KYUSHU UNIVERSITY |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
IWASA Yoh Kyushu Univ., Graduate School of Science, Professor, 大学院・理学研究科, 教授 (70176535)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
巌佐 庸 九州大学, 大学院・理学研究科, 教授 (70176535)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 1999
|
| Keywords | Risk equivalent / DDT / Extinction time / Herring gull / Bio-magnification / Estimate of ecological risk |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
To evaluate the environmental risk of toxic chemicals, risk benefit analysis has been introduced. In these, human-health risk is counted but not the risk to ecosystem (natural biological environment). Here we develop a new method to evaluate the ecological risk based on the harmful effect to wild populations, by shortening the mean extinction time. We first develop a method to estimate the mean extinction time of a density-dependent population, and how this will shorten when it is exposed to toxic chemicals. Then we apply this method to a particular population of Herring gull at New York State in 1950's, when DDT concentration in water was very high. We estimated that the extinction risk caused by the DDT exposure at this level is equivalent to the reduction of carrying capacity of 20-30% for a gull population of 250 individuals. This method will be useful in quantifying different risk factors using the same currency of risk equivalent.
|
