Meeting the Challenges of Aquatic Vertebrate Ecotoxicology

Guidance Document on Aquatic Ecotoxicology

Aquatic and terrestrial mesocosms in amphibian ecotoxicology

Abstract. Aquatic and terrestrial mesocosms have been used successfully to examine ecological and ecotoxicological questions with amphibians. Mesocosms represent a bridge between the laboratory and the natural world, and allow for experimental research on factors that influence amphibian populations and communities. In this manuscript, we review the current literature utilizing mesocosms for ec...

Ecotoxicology: The Challenges for the 21st Century

The usual procedures for ecological risk assessment (ERA) have been based for decades on simplified approaches in order to provide basic information on the huge amount of chemicals introduced into the environment. These approaches allowed the development of international regulatory tools capable of substantially reducing the adverse effects on ecosystems in developed countries. Nevertheless, th...

AMEG: the new SETAC advisory group on aquatic macrophyte ecotoxicology

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Primary producers play critical structural and functional roles in aquatic ecosystems; therefore, it is imperative that the potential risks of toxicants to aquatic plants are adequately assessed in the risk assessment of chemicals. The standard required macrophyte test species is the floating (non-sediment-rooted) duckweed Lemna spp. This macrophyte species might not...

Challenges of Anticoagulant Rodenticides: Resistance and Ecotoxicology

Control of rodent pests worldwide relies heavily on the use of rodenticides. In the 40s’, O’Connor (1948) isolated and first suggested the use of dicoumarol (a naturally occurring substance responsible for the “sweet clover disease” in cattle) as a rodenticide. In the early 50s’, anticoagulant rodenticides (warfarin and later indane-dione derivatives) replaced the acute poisons with great succe...