ABSTRACT
Divergent answers would result if one asked established ecotoxicologists to decide whether a topic such as the current pollination crisis, global warming, widespread forest decline in central Europe, ocean acidication, or global distillation were in the purview of ecotoxicology. Some would feel that, if the context of the problem were bigger than a traditional ecosystem, then it would be better handled in biogeochemistry, landscape or conservation ecology, soil sciences, atmospheric chemistry, or remote sensing technology. There would be a contrastingly uniform afrmation if the question involved PCB bioaccumulation in trout of a lake or a pollution-induced decrease in arthropod species diversity in forest litter. One obvious reason for this bias is that much in ecotoxicology was borrowed in the 1970s from the sciences of toxicology and ecology. The emphasis in toxicology was and remains appropriately on the individual. Until a few decades ago, the dominant context of ecology was the ecosystem or lower levels of biological organization.
