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Posted: Asked by course participant (21-23 March 2012 Melbourne, Australia)

Can marine CR values be applied to freshwater ecosystems?

Question:
How can we best use CR (transfer) values from the marine ecosystem for the freshwater ecosystem if we do not have freshwater data?
Answer:
This was an approach used to provide some default CR values within the original parametrisation of the ERICA Tool. It is not one we would recommend. There are perhaps more intelligent ways the available data could be used, e.g. are ratios between CR values for given elements or organisms in marine and freshwater similar? The Wildlife Transfer Database contains data for estuarine/brackish water ecosystems in addition to freshwater and marine, these may provide a better surrogate CR value for other aquatic ecosystems. However, this needs to be investigated before we would recommend such an approach.

Answered by Nick Beresford (CEH) 1/05/2012

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