REGULATORY ENDPOINTS, ECOLOGICAL UNCERTAINTIES, AND ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING.

The regulation and management of ecological systems are prescribed by regulatory endpoints, those norms which translate fundamental legislative purpose into regulatory action. Environmental decision-making requires the evaluation of ecological information vis-a-vis regulatory endpoints, but there is a plethora of sources of uncertainty associated with ecological predictions. The authors discuss the nature of these sources of uncertainty along with approaches to environmental decision-making in the presence of uncertainty.