ABSTRACT
Ecology has been described as scientific natural history, or as the scientific study of the interactions between abiotic factors and biota that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms. The term ecotoxicology which was first coined by Truhaut in 1969 has come to mean the study of the fate and effect of a toxic compound on an ecosystem. Ecotoxicology is, in many cases, following the path taken originally by classical toxicology in that several acute toxicity tests are being devised and used to understand the comparative toxicity of a particular compound on many species. For many years the prime criterion for selecting a specific organism for ecotoxicity testing was its high degree of sensitivity to chemical compounds. In ecotoxicology, therefore, an organism such as Ceriodaphnia whose life stages are completed in a relatively short time is often used. This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the book.
