Ecotoxicology

Ecotoxicology studies how toxic substances move through the environment and affect organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems.

Environmental fate: The transport, transformation, and persistence of chemicals in air, water, soil, and organisms. Tracks where toxic substances go and how they change after entering the environment.
Toxicology: The study of harmful effects caused by chemical, physical, or biological agents in living organisms. Ecotoxicology extends toxicology from individual organisms to environmental systems.
Ecological risk assessment: A process for estimating the likelihood and severity of adverse effects on ecological entities from environmental stressors. It applies ecotoxicological evidence to estimate risks to species and ecosystems.
Species sensitivity distribution: A statistical distribution describing variation in species’ sensitivity to a chemical. It estimates how protective a concentration threshold may be across a community.
Bioavailability: The fraction of a substance accessible for uptake by an organism. Only bioavailable contaminants can contribute directly to exposure and toxic effects.
Exposure assessment: The estimation of how much of a substance reaches organisms through specific routes and over time. Environmental hazard cannot be evaluated without estimating actual exposure.
Environmental monitoring: The systematic measurement of environmental conditions or substances over time and across locations. Monitoring reveals contaminant levels and ecological changes outside the laboratory.
Mixture toxicity: The combined toxic effects of two or more substances encountered together. Environmental organisms are commonly exposed to mixtures rather than isolated chemicals.
Bioconcentration: The accumulation of a substance in an organism from the surrounding medium, excluding dietary uptake. Shows how waterborne contaminants can build up within organisms.
Toxicity test: An experiment that measures harmful effects of a substance on organisms under defined conditions. Tests provide the response data used to compare contaminants and species.

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