SS 23 - Is Your Science Actionable: How Ecology Is Used in Integrated Science Assessments (ISAs)

Session Description: The Clean Air Act, its amendments and rules have been successful in protecting human and environmental health in the U.S. Air pollution at the turn of the 20th century created thick smog causing widespread harm, and by the mid-20^th century lead from gasoline created toxic roadside environments. These devastating consequences have been effectively mitigated by science that was interpreted into U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Even still, our work as ecologists is not done. Air pollution effects on ecosystems remain an important issue across the U.S. Modern threats of air pollution to ecosystems include nitrogen-driven eutrophication, contributions to acidification, and harmful photochemical oxidants. Resulting impacts include loss of biodiversity, changes in productivity, and degraded water quality. In this special session scientists will learn how to effectively develop, interpret, and communicate research that contributes to the scientific basis that informs the assessment of criteria air pollutants. This session will focus on air concentrations and deposition of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, particulate matter, and ozone.

Research on air pollution effects is most effective if results can inform air pollution science assessment. EPA’s Integrated Science Assessments (ISAs) of the criteria air pollutants are national-scale assessments that require synthesis of hundreds, if not thousands, of peer-reviewed research papers. The goal of the ISAs is to integrate multiple lines of evidence from different study designs, on different species in different locations across the U.S. The ISAs update casual determinations, inform elements of the standard and characterize the detriments to ecosystems. Papers that quantify causal relationships, uncertainty, and site-specific results are more effective than others, and these papers will have the highest impact in this process.

The session will include an introduction to the Clean Air Act amendments, ISAs, and how the ISAs are used to inform decisions on NAAQS. Examples will be presented of how research can be specifically designed to achieve maximum impact in informing air pollution effects. The session will include a discussion of strengths and limitations of approaches used to assess causality of air pollution effects on organisms and ecosystems, confounders of causal determination, legacy effects of pollutants, the role of changing climate on organism or ecosystem response to air pollutants, and the severity of air pollution effects such as tipping points in ecosystem response. We will allow at least one half-hour for discussion, moderated by members of the Policy Section.