ABSTRACT
A major goal of ecotoxicology is to become more anticipatory or proactive, such as is illustrated in the Great Lakes ecosystem. The studies of the effects of toxicants on individuals, populations, communities, and systems must continue. There is an even greater need for data and models on how populations and systems operate under normal, varying environmental conditions, and multiple-stressors. Ecotoxicologists enter and study biological systems at many levels and often at many levels simultaneously. Almost all case-histories in ecotoxicological problem definition and then solution have been characterized by a reactive approach. All biological systems are resilient to some degree, and this resiliency has often kept society out of serious trouble. But eventually we have to ask ourselves whether natural or even production-oriented ecosystems can continually be used as in situ experimental subjects or test systems in environmental evaluations.
