Research Product

In exchange for the benefits of increased technology, society has been required to accept a certain amount of environmental degradation. In order for society to rationally determine an acceptable environmental 'price' for technological progress, it is necessary to identify and measure the associated environmental damage. Since ecological systems are continually being subjected to a wide variety of stresses, only a portion of which are a result of human activities, this cost-benefit comparison becomes difficult. The major objective of any ecological effects research and development (R&D) program should be to determine the environmental cost side of the cost/benefit equation, that is: i) to identify the environmental impacts associated with particular human activities; ii) to quantify those effects; and iii) to determine whether they are ecologically significant. Once these objectives are met, society can compare the environmental costs and benefits associated with particular actions, and define acceptable trade-offs. Determination of the significance of a given environmental impact requires discrimination between changes induced by anthropogenic causes and those occurring naturally. Ecosystems are dynamic entities subject to naturally occurring changes. More often than not, environmental stresses result in a change of the rate of certain naturally occurring processes. The problem then, is one of detecting the changes resulting from man's activities over and above natural processes. In the formulation of environmental policy that reflects both informed scientific judgment and current societal values, it is necessary to define the degree of potential impact associated with a certain activity and its significance upon an ecosystem. Traditional environmental assessment studies connot always provide this type of information. This discussion will examine a number of available research tools that are used to evaluate the adverse ecological impacts that often result from man's activities. Their respective abilities to provide some of the necessary information upon which environmental policy decisions can be made will be considered. In particular, the focus will be on selected microcosm research techniques that appear to satisfy many of the information requirements of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulatory programs.