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Ecotoxicology is the science that seeks to predict the impacts of chemi cals upon ecosystems. This involves describing and predicting ecological changes ensuing from a variety of human activities that involve release of xenobiotic and other chemicals to the environment. A fundamental principle of ecotoxicology is embodied in the notion of change. Ecosystems themselves are constantly changing due to natural processes, and it is a challenge to distinguish the effects of anthropogenic activities against this background of fluctuations in the natural world. With the frustratingly large, diverse, and ever-emerging sphere of envi ronmental problems that ecotoxicology must address, the approaches to individual problems also must vary. In part, as a consequence, there is no established protocol for application of the science to environmental prob lem-solving. The conceptual and methodological bases for ecotoxicology are, how ever, in their infancy, and thus still growing with new experiences. In deed, the only robust generalization for research on different ecosystems and different chemical stresses seems to be a recognition of the necessity of an ecosystem perspective as focus for assessment. This ecosystem basis for ecotoxicology was the major theme of a previous pUblication by the Ecosystems Research Center at Cornell University, a special issue of Environmental Management (Levin et al. 1984). With that effort, we also recognized an additional necessity: there should be a continued develop ment of methods and expanded recognition of issues for ecotoxicology and for the associated endeavor of environmental management.
Sommario
I Ecotoxicology: Problems and Approaches.- 1 Ecotoxicology: Problems and Approaches.- 2 Indicators of Ecosystem Response and Recovery.- II Responses of Ecosystems to Chemical Stress.- 3 Effects of Heavy Metals in a Polluted Aquatic Ecosystem.- 4 Determining the Ecological Effects of Oil Pollution in Marine Ecosystems.- 5 The Effects of Chemical Stress on Aquatic Species Composition and Community Structure.- 6 Theoretical and Methodological Reasons for Variability in the Responses of Aquatic Ecosystem Processes to Chemical Stresses.- 7 The Effects of Chemicals on the Structure of Terrestrial Ecosystems: Mechanisms and Patterns of Change.- III Methods and Models.- 8 Models in Ecotoxicology: Methodological Aspects.- 9 Mathematical Models-Fate, Transport, and Food Chain.- 10 Deterministic and Statistical Models of Chemical Fate in Aquatic Systems.- 11 Bioaccumulation of Hydrophobic Organic Pollutant Compounds.- 12 Environmental Chemical Stress Effects Associated with Carbon and Phosphorus Biogeochemical Cycles.- 13 Biomonitoring: Closing the Loop in the Environmental Sciences.- 14 The Role of Terrestrial Microcosms and Mesocosms in Ecotoxicologic Research.- 15 The Role of Aquatic Microcosms in Ecotoxicologic Research as Illustrated by Large Marine Systems.- IV Ecotoxicological Decision Making.- 16 Ecotoxicology Beyond Sensitivity: A Case Study Involving "Unreasonableness" of Environmental Change.- 17 Regulatory Framework for Ecotoxicology.- 18 Environmental Decision Making in the Presence of Uncertainty.
