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Ecotoxicology is the science of contaminants in the biosphere and their effects on constituents of the biosphere (Newman, 2015). It follows from this definition that ecotoxicologists examine large-scale ecological phenomenon (Preston, 2002) in addition to those normally addressed in toxicology: ecotoxicology has an overarching goal of explaining and predicting effect or exposure phenomena at several levels of biological organization (Fig. 30-1). Essential explanations and models include those applied in conventional toxicology and a range of environmental sciences.
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Although Truhaut's original definition of this new science encompassed effects to humans (Truhaut, 1977), most recent definitions of ecotoxicology do not. Relevant effects to nonhuman targets range from biomolecular to global. Taking on the classic toxicology vantage initially, suborganismal and organismal effects were emphasized during ecotoxicology's nascent stage; however, studies of higher level effects and interactions are becoming increasingly commonplace as the science matures. Such indirect effects1 were initially considered problematic and reluctantly relegated to secondary importance (Fleeger et al., 2003) relative to direct effects to individuals. Indirect effects are now known to be as or more important as direct effects to nonhuman targets (Fleeger et al., 2003; Chapman, 2004). As the need to predict major effects to populations, communities, ecosystems, and other higher level entities has become increasingly apparent, more cause–effect models relevant to these higher levels of biological organization are added to the conventional set of toxicology models applied by pioneering ecotoxicologists.
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Contaminant chemical form, phase association, and movement among components of the biosphere are also central issues in ecotoxicology because they determine exposure, bioavailability, and realized dose. The context of these biogeochemical studies has expanded in the last several decades to encompass issues of larger scale such as global movement and fractionation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (Wania and Mackay, 1996).
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From a practical vantage, ecotoxicology informs decision makers about ecological risks associated with contamination. Risk to ecological entities is estimated or predicted by combining exposure and effect information. Risk might involve diminished fitness of individuals, increased risk of local population extinction, a drop in species diversity, or reduced nutrient cycling or primary productivity. Because potential ecological endpoints are so diverse, the ecological risk framework tends ...