Abstract

To date, the assessment of the health status of waters is mainly based on chemical measurements of contaminants and the use of indices revealing disturbances of living communities. However, over the last decade, scientists have increasingly attempted to describe the potential ecological consequences of impairments detected at lower levels of biological organization well before biological degradation has reached a stage when remediation is no longer possible or commercially viable. Reproductive success depends on a cascade of events (biochemical, physiological, behavioral) at the subindividual or individual level and has a key role in maintaining population structure and density with potential consequences at the community andecosystem levels. Thus, there is a strong case to focus on biological responses (biomarkers) linked directly or indirectly to reproduction such as, for example, impairments of energy metabolism, endocrine disruption, genotoxicity, and behavioral disturbances. Cascading effects, leading to population or community changes, can occur in contaminated environments (or at least in the laboratory after chronic exposure at sublethal environmentally relevant doses).Inbiological monitoring programs,atieredapproach canbeproposed,including: i)thedetection of abnormalities based on high-level biomarkers linked to reproduction; ii) the measurement of a battery of core biomarkers (more specific biochemical markers) to identify the main classes of contaminants which may be responsible for observed ecotoxicological effects; and iii) the use of analytical chemistry to validate the hypotheses leading from these biomarkers by confirming the presence of raised bioavailabilities of any suspected chemical contaminants. The relevance of using ecological modeling to link individual biomarkers to consequencesatthe populationlevel inrisk assessmentisdiscussed. In addition totheir usein environmental quality assessments, ecological biomarkers could contribute to predictive risk assessments of new and existing chemicals.

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