Evolution of Species Sensitivity Distributions

A main challenge in determining Water Quality Benchmarks is translating species-specific toxicant sensitivity data into a metric that characterizes toxicant hazard levels for an entire ecosystem. A widespread approach is the Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) approach.

In this approach, toxicant sensitivity data from many different species are combined in a single analyses to infer community-wide toxicant hazard levels.

Practical application of the SSD approach faces a number of hurdles, all of which are rooted in a key problem: we lack a unified theoretical understanding of the biological underpinnings of SSDs.

Evolution of Species Sensitivity Distributions will solve this problem by integrating macroevolutionary process models with ecotoxicology.

I will do this by first leveraging large scale public databases to infer the tempo and mode of toxicant effect evolution across the tree of life.

Second, I will use the approach to predict toxicant sensitivity for data-depauperate species, and use lab-based toxicity experiments to test the approach.

This grant will link biological process with toxicological pattern to understand the forces that generate among-species variation in toxicant sensitivity, with direct application to sustainable development of interest to a range of stakeholders.