ABSTRACT
A review is provided of recent studies carried out in North America, where an integrated monitoring approach has been used in assessing possible bleached pulp mill effluent effects. Integrated monitoring has been here defined as an approach in which environmental impact assessment is based on multiple ecosystem measurements including population structure, standing crop, or production at several trophic levels. Examples of these types of studies include those carried out in mill receiving waters or experimental streams in which fish population, macroinvertebrate, and/or periphyton community characteristics have been described. In some cases it has been possible to compare and contrast the findings from these studies with the results from laboratory bioassay, biomarker, or biochemical measurements carried out at organism or suborganism levels with the same effluent. Although integrated monitoring studies can be expensive to conduct, they are considered of important value in addressing questions of ecological relevance with respect to assessing the environmental significance of mill effluents. This review summarizes the types of studies that were not previously reported, have been completed, or that are in progress in North America since the 1991 review by Owens and the SEPA “Environmental Fate and Effects of Bleached Pulp Mill Effluents” symposium (Södergren 1991).
