Ecological Risk Assessment

Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) is a scientific approach used to determine the possible impacts of human activities on the environment. The EPA defines ERA as “the process that evaluates the likelihood that adverse ecological effects are occurring, or may occur, as a result of exposure to one or more stressors.” These stressors might be contaminants like lead, non-native species like introduced plants, habitat modifications like new housing developments, or even changes in climate. In fact, a stressor is simply a change that modifies ecological systems such as lakes, streams, forests, and watersheds. The resulting ecological risks may be limited to a local scale, such as trout disappearing from a certain…