Ecological assembly of chemical mixtures

Abstract

Human-environment interactions have a significant role in the formation of chemical mixtures in the environment and by extension in human tissues and fluids. These interactions, which include decisions to purchase and use products containing chemicals as well as behaviors and activities that explain the uptake and absorption of chemicals, may be viewed as an ecological relationship between humans and their environments. Methods with origins in community ecology for evaluating structure in assemblages of flora and fauna are applied to investigate the nonrandom assembly of chemical species. Presence-absence matrix-based techniques are used to elaborate co-occurrence patterns with the aim of identifying the principal chemicals which tend to co-occur. This ecological premise is expanded by drawing on consumer market basket analysis techniques to show how this approach may help identify robust co-occurrence patterns.