Chemicals emitted to the environment affect ecosystem health from local to global scale, and reducing chemical impacts has become an important element of European and global sustainability efforts.... Show moreChemicals emitted to the environment affect ecosystem health from local to global scale, and reducing chemical impacts has become an important element of European and global sustainability efforts. The present work ad-vances ecotoxicity characterization of chemicals in life cycle impact assessment by proposing recommendations resulting from international expert workshops and work conducted under the umbrella of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative in the GLAM project (Global guidance on environmental life cycle impact assessment indicators). We include specific recommendations for broadening the assessment scope through proposing to introduce additional environmental compartments beyond freshwater and related ecotoxicity indicators, as well as for adapting the ecotoxicity effect modelling approach to better reflect environmentally relevant exposure levels and including to a larger extent chronic test data. As result, we (1) propose a consistent mathematical framework for calculating freshwater ecotoxicity characterization factors and their underlying fate, exposure and effect pa-rameters; (2) implement the framework into the USEtox scientific consensus model; (3) calculate characteriza-tion factors for chemicals reported in an inventory of a life cycle assessment case study on rice production and consumption; and (4) investigate the influence of effect data selection criteria on resulting indicator scores. Our results highlight the need for careful interpretation of life cycle assessment impact scores in light of robustness of underlying species sensitivity distributions. Next steps are to apply the recommended characterization frame-work in additional case studies, and to adapt it to soil, sediment and the marine environment. Our framework is applicable for evaluating chemicals in life cycle assessment, chemical and environmental footprinting, chemical substitution, risk screening, chemical prioritization, and comparison with environmental sustainability targets. Show less
Accurate knowledge about factors and conditions determining copper (Cu) toxicity in soil is needed for predicting plant growth in various Cu-contaminated soils. Therefore, effects of Cu on growth ... Show moreAccurate knowledge about factors and conditions determining copper (Cu) toxicity in soil is needed for predicting plant growth in various Cu-contaminated soils. Therefore, effects of Cu on growth (biomass production) of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) were tested on seven selected, very different soils spiked with Cu and aged for 2 months at 35 °C. Cu toxicity was expressed as pEC50(Cu2+), i.e., the negative logarithm of the EC50(Cu2+) activity to plant growth. The determined pEC50(Cu2+) was significantly and positively correlated with both the analytically readily available soil pH and concentration of dissolved organic carbon [DOC] which together could explain 87 % of the pEC50(Cu2+) variation according to the simple equation: pEC50(Cu2+)=0.98×pH+ 345×[DOC]-0.27. Other soil characteristics, including the base cation concentrations (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+), the cation exchange capacity at soil pH (ECEC), and at pH 7 (CEC7), soil organic carbon, clay content, and electric conductivity as well as the distribution coefficient (Kd) calculated as the ratio between total soil Cu and water-extractable Cu did not correlate significantly with pEC50(Cu2+). Consequently, Cu toxicity, expressed as the negative log of the Cu2+ activity, to plant growth increases at increasing pH and DOC, which needs to be considered in future management of plant growth on Cucontaminated soils. The developed regression equation allows identification of soil types in which the phytotoxicity potential of Cu is highest. Show less
