ABSTRACT
Ecotoxicological risks for heavy metals in soils in the Netherlands are derived from species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) for terrestrial soil fauna (e.g., Chapters 12 and 16). It has been proposed that the 5th percentile of the SSD offers sufficient protection for the entire ecosystem (Van Leeuwen, 1990). The risk of trophic transfer of persistent compounds, however, is not explicitly covered, since the basic toxicological information from which the distribution is derived usually does not include food chain exposure data. In the current Dutch procedure for deriving soil quality criteria, food chain transfer is taken into account by calculating risks for wormeating birds and mammals (Romijn et al., 1994; Van de Plassche, 1994; Chapter 12). This chapter is an attempt to expand the use of SSDs in risk assessment to more species of birds and mammals at specified locations in the Netherlands.
