Managing risk to ecological populations

With the exception of legally protected species (e.g., threatened or endangered species in the United States) individual organisms generally have little legal, societal, or ecological relevance. Thus ecological risk management decisions are (whether stated or implied) essentially aimed at ensuring protection of a population of individuals and not necessarily each individual in that population. Risk management and ecological risk-based decision-making has been the topic of numerous books, articles, and guidance documents in recent years (Kolluru et al. 1996; Barnthouse et al. 1998; Koller 1999; USEPA 1999; Swindoll et al. 2000; Stahl 2001). The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the current context for risk management decision-making that is considered protective of ecological populations.