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In Response: Biological arguments for selecting effect sizes in ecotoxicological testing—A governmental perspective

Christopher A. Mebane
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Abstract

Criticisms of the uses of the no-observed-effect concentration (NOEC) and the lowest-observed-effect concentration (LOEC) and more generally the entire null hypothesis statistical testing scheme are hardly new or unique to the field of ecotoxicology [ 1-4 ]. Among the criticisms of NOECs and LOECs is that statistically similar LOECs (in terms of p value) can represent drastically different levels of effect. For instance, my colleagues and I found that a battery of chronic toxicity tests with different species and endpoints yielded LOECs with minimum detectable differences ranging from 3% to 48% reductions from controls [ 5 ].

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Christopher A. Mebane. 2015-11-01. In Response: Biological arguments for selecting effect sizes in ecotoxicological testing—A governmental perspective. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.3108

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