6. Effects of toxicants across time, space and levels of biological
organisation
Keywords:
effect propagation, effect correlation, mechanistic links, ecological significance, spatiotemporal
variability
Track description:
Over the past decades, a large number of studies have addressed the effects of toxicants across
levels of biological organization, tentatively from molecular to ecosystem-level responses. While
biochemical and physiological alterations in organisms may occur rapidly and are often stressorspecific, the ecological relevance of these suborganismal indicators is still uncertain. Studies of
alterations in populations and communities have greater ecological relevance, but because of
aggravating or compensatory mechanisms which take place over long time periods and/or at large
spatial scales, their link with responses at lower levels of organization is not straightforward. This
track is intending to cover innovative experimental approaches for describing the ecological
consequences of responses at lower levels of organization (biochemical, physiological, individual)
and speculating on the underlying mechanisms associated with population and community
alterations.