37362 - Ecologic Methods for the Analysis and the Management of the Environment

Learning outcomes

After completing this course, the student should have the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required to measure and predict the effects of human activities on populations, communities and ecosystems and to integrate this information in ways relevant to environmental management.

The student should be able to:

- implement bioassessment methods based on structural and functional characteristics of populations, communities, ecosystems;

- integrate information of different nature, using "weight of evidence” approaches;

- perform ecological risk assessment, both predictive and retrospective, in particular the analysis of the ecological effects of contaminants and other stressors;

- discriminate natural variability and anthropogenic alteration and assess the impact of human activities on ecological systems, using appropriate sampling designs.

Course contents

Measuring the impact of human activities on ecological systems: rationale, sampling design, data analysis:
- under optimal conditions (time and place of the putative impact are known in advance);
- in sub-optimal conditions.

Experimental evaluation of the toxicity of chemicals and the biological effects of other anthropogenic stressors:
- toxicity tests;
- analysis of the exposure-response relationship;
- measures of toxicity (EC50, NOEC, LOEC).

Extrapolation problems:
- from laboratory to field conditions;
- from short-term effects to long-term effects;
- among different substances (QSAR: quantitative structure-activity relationships);
- among organisms of different species (PNEC, methods based on sensitivity distributions);
- among different levels of biological organization.

Bioassessment methods and indices of ecological quality
- the reference condition;
- RIVPACS and BEAST;
- the multimetric approach, biological integrity indices;
- The Extended Biotic Index (EBI);
- The soil biolgical quality (QBS) and the Maturity Index.

Evaluating the likelihood that one or more stressors are causing or may cause adverse ecological effects: the ecological risk assessment (ERA, ecological risk assessment)
- the USEPA framework;
- different uses of ERA: predictive, retrospective, site specific;
- the Sediment Quality Triad and other "weight of evidence" approaches.

Readings/Bibliography

Copies of the slides of the lectures.
Articles from scientific journals and chapters from books and technical reports will be specified later.

Teaching methods

Lectures.
Data analysis classes in computer room.

Assessment methods

Oral examination supplemented by evaluation of the reports produced during data analysis classes.

Teaching tools

Classroom with video projector.
Computer room for data analysis.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Pasteris