ABSTRACT
An organism makes a powerful integrator of the effect of any number of changes in chemical and physical (e.g., temperature) factors in the aquatic environment. Thus, water pollution control authorities increasingly are looking for ways to use aquatic organisms to determine the biological consequences of pollution. Physiological changes that are clearly associated with acute stress, such as elevated blood glucose, depressed liver glycogen concentration, high cortisol levels, etc., are not of much aid for determinations of water quality criteria, but along with other blood and tissue measures, they may prove useful in biomonitoring. Behavior integrates changes that may have occurred at lower levels of biological complexity, such as biochemical alterations in the nervous system but is only beginning to be used in toxicological investigations. A potential advantage of behavioral tests is that they are relatively non-invasive so the organisms could be removed from their resident waters, tested, and then returned.
