Ecotoxicology is a relatively new scientific discipline. Indeed, it might be argued that it is only during the last 5-10 years that it has come to merit being regarded as a true science, rather than a collection of procedures for protecting the environment through management and monitoring of pollutant discharges into the environment. The term 'ecotoxicology' was first coined in the late sixties by Prof. Truhaut, a toxicologist who had the vision to recognize the importance of investigating the fate and effects of chemicals in ecosystems. At that time, ecotoxicology was considered a sub-discipline of medical toxicology. Subsequently, several attempts have been made to portray ecotoxicology in a more realistic light. Notably, both Moriarty (1988) and F. Ramade (1987) emphasized in their books the broad basis of ecotoxicology, encompassing chemical and radiation effects on all components of ecosystems. In doing so, they and others have shifted concern from direct chemical toxicity to humans, to the far more subtle effects that pollutant chemicals exert on natural biota. Such effects potentially threaten the existence of all life on earth. Although I have identified the sixties as the era when ecotoxicology was first conceived as a coherent subject area, it is important to acknowledge that studies that would now be regarded as ecotoxicological are much older.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
...short, concisely written, ideas-driven reviews of dey issues making this a text suitable for both students and researchers - Ethology Ecology & Evolution
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ISBN-13
978-94-009-1541-1 (9789400915411)
DOI
10.1007/978-94-009-1541-1
Schweitzer Klassifikation
1 Putting the 'ECO-' into ECOtoxicology.- 2 Ecology in ecotoxicology: some possible 'rules of thumb'.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Reliability.- 2.3 Relevance.- 2.4 'Rules of thumb'.- 2.5 Conclusions.- References.- 3 Using demographic theory, community ecology and spatial models to illuminate ecotoxicology.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Stage-structured demographic models as an improvement on simply counting dead animals.- 3.3 Adapting recent advances in community ecology for predicting beyond single-species reponses in ecotoxicology.- 3.4 Using spatially explicit models to suggest how the scale and spatial patterning of a chemical stress influences its impact.- 3.5 Can ecology better serve environmental toxicology?.- 3.6 Conclusion.- Acknowledgements.- References.- 4 Indirect effects: concepts and approaches from ecological theory.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Simple types of indirect effects.- 4.3 Empirical studies to determine indirect effects.- 4.4 Estimating magnitudes of direct and indirect effects.- 4.5 Factors affecting the propagation of indirect effects.- 4.6 Indeterminacy of ecological interactions.- 4.7 Conclusions.- References.- 5 The dimensions of space and time in the assessment of ecotoxicological risks.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Space and time in ecotoxicology: arguments from first principles.- 5.3 Effects of temporal and spatial factors on ecotoxicological processes.- 5.4 The next steps in ecotoxicology.- References.- 6 Coping with variability in environmental impact assessment.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 The nature of environmental variation.- 6.3 Variation and impact assessment.- 6.4 Study designs and their assumptions.- 6.5 On natural variation, pseudoreplication, power and scale.- 6.6 Conclusions.- Acknowledgements.- References.- 7 Environmental stress andthe distribution of traits within populations.- 7.1 Are responses to environmental stress general?.- 7.2 Key definitions.- 7.3 Population tolerance distributions.- 7.4 Sensitivity in toxicology.- 7.5 Sensitivity in ecology.- 7.6 Variability in asexual versus sexual populations.- 7.7 Stress-caused changes in variability.- 7.8 Evidence for increased variability in response to stress?.- 7.9 Predicting variance changes in response to stress.- 7.10 Detecting effects of stress on variable systems.- 7.11 Promising directions for future inquiry.- 7.12 Concluding remarks.- Acknowledgements.- References.
