ABSTRACT
Words or terminology often represent implicit models that may be inaccurate and lead to unwarranted extrapolations. Much of the terminology in ecology and environmental toxicology was put in place when equilibrium-based Clementian ecology was the rule. The term ecosystem has buried within it the implication of a system. Items that are Level +1 or the higher level are those that constitute constraints, controls, and boundary conditions. The organisms of interest may only be found in patches of suitable habitat within a landscape and this constitutes a boundary condition. Biomonitoring is a term that implies a biological system is used in some way for the evaluation of current status of an ecosystem. Validation of the predictions derived from the elaborate series of tests can only be done by effective monitoring of ecosystems. There is a continuum of monitoring points along the path that an effect on an ecosystem takes from introduction of a xenobiotic to biosphere to final series of effects.
