CalEcotox Database
What is CalEcotox?
CalEcotox is a repository that provides data for California ecotoxicological risk assessments. A relational, species-driven database, it combines physiological and ecological parameters and toxicity data for more than 90 California mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
Originally developed in the late 1990s in collaboration with the University of California, Davis, the database has now been updated and redesigned to make data searches and retrieval more flexible and user friendly. Several new species were added, based on input received from representatives at other state and federal agencies who conduct ecotoxicological risk assessments in California.
CalEcotox collates species-specific information for approximately 30 exposure factors (e.g., body weights, ingestion rates, seasonal activities and population dynamics) commonly used to estimate exposure to contaminants. The exposure factors in CalEcotox were patterned after the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Wildlife Exposure Factor Handbook (US EPA, 1993) but augment US EPA's efforts by including information for more than 90 California wildlife species. In addition to exposure factors, toxicological data for population-level to individual-level effects have been included for these species, when available. Data included in CalEcotox have been retrieved from publicly available scientific literature.