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Concept
Ecotoxicology
Summary
Ecotoxicology is the study of the effects of toxic chemicals on biological organisms, especially at the population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecotoxicology is a multidisciplinary field, which integrates toxicology and ecology.
The ultimate goal of ecotoxicology is to reveal and predict the effects of pollution within the context of all other environmental factors. Based on this knowledge the most efficient and effective action to prevent or remediate any detrimental effect can be identified. In those ecosystems that are already affected by pollution, ecotoxicological studies can inform the choice of action to restore ecosystem services, structures, and functions efficiently and effectively.
Ecotoxicology differs from environmental toxicology in that it integrates the effects of stressors across all levels of biological organisation from the molecular to whole communities and ecosystems, whereas environmental toxicology includes toxicity to humans and often focuses upon effects at the organism level and below.
Ecotoxicology is a relatively young discipline that made its debuts in the 1970s in the realm of the environmental sciences. Its methodological aspects, derived from toxicology, are widened to encompass the human environmental field and the biosphere at large. While conventional toxicology limits its investigations to the cellular, molecular and organismal scales, ecotoxicology strives to assess the impact of chemical, physicochemical and biological stressors, on populations and communities exhibiting the impacts on entire ecosystems. In this respect, ecotoxicology again takes into consideration dynamic balance under strain.
Ecotoxicology emerged after pollution events that occurred after World War II heightened awareness on the impact of toxic chemical and wastewater discharges towards humankind and the environment. The term "Ecotoxicology" was uttered for the first time in 1969 by René Truhaut, a toxicologist, during an environmental conference in Stockholm.
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