Introduction to ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY Impacts of Chemicals Upon Ecological Systems - CHAPTER 1

Project Editor: Marketing Manager: Cover design: Maggie Mogck Arline Massey Dawn Boyd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Landis, Wayne G. Introduction to environmental toxicology : impacts of chemicals upon ecological systems, / Wayne G. Landis, Ming-Ho Yu — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-56670-265-8 (alk. paper) 1. Pollution—Environmental aspects. 2. Pollutants—Toxicology. I. Yu, Ming-Ho, 1928-. II. Title. QH545.A1L35 1998 571.9¢5--dc21 97-50324 CIP This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use. 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Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation, without intent to infringe. © 1999 by CRC Press LLC Lewis Publishers is an imprint of CRC Press LLC No claim to original U.S. Government works International Standard Book Number 1-56670-265-8 Library of Congress Card Number 97-50324 Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Printed on acid-free paper Preface We have prepared this text because we had no suitable text for teaching courses introducing environmental toxicology and biochemistry. Portions of this book have already been used to teach an introduction to environmental toxicology and bio-chemical toxicology courses at Western Washington University and changes sug-gested by these students have been incorporated. In general these students have backgrounds in organic chemistry, ecology, calculus, and often biochemistry. We appreciate any feedback and these suggestions will be incorporated into, hopefully, further editions. One of the major difficulties in preparing this book has been the rate of change seen in the field. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency prepared a new Frame-work for Ecological Risk Assessment, nonlinear dynamics has become a major part of ecological theory, and new methods of examining effects at the level of community and ecosystem have been developed during the writing of this book. Now it is two years later and we have made major revisions to this edition in order to keep pace with the field of environmental toxicology. Ecological risk assessment has become the operating paradigm and estrogen disruption has taken on a new importance. The field is more sophisticated in the data analysis tools that it uses and multivariate approaches are becoming more common in the literature. Perhaps the most recent development is the awareness that effects and risks must be seen on a regional scale. Multiple natural and anthropogenic stressors occur to a variety of connected habitats. In order to understand the patterns in the environment that result from the introduction of chemicals, we must take a large scale approach. It will be interesting to see what the next several years bring. The Authors Wayne G. Landis is the Director of The Institute of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry of Huxley College, Western Washington University. He received his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Zool-ogy from Indiana University. With a background in protozoan genetics and ecology, his research has since concentrated on environmental toxicology. In the past several years, he has published over 80 papers and received two patents on microbial deg-radation. In 1991 he chaired the annual Environ- mental Toxicology and Risk Assessment Symposium sponsored by the American Society for Testing and Materials held in Atlantic City and served as Organizational Chair for the Annual Meeting of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry held in Seattle. During 1992 he served as President of the Pacific North-west Chapter of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (PNWSETAC). Dr. Landis also has served on the editorial boards of several journals. Since 1989 he has edited three books on aquatic toxicology and risk assessment published by the American Society for Testing and Materials. Dr. Landis teaches courses in environmental and aquatic toxicology, environ-mental risk assessment, and population biology. His current research includes devel-oping new methods of evaluating environmental toxicity using birds and marine organisms, establishing interspecies structure activity models, evaluation multispe-cies toxicity tests, and the description of how ecosystems respond to stressors. Perhaps the most intriguing avenue of research has been the implementation of chaos and complexity theory to describe the dynamics of ecological systems after toxicant stress. This research has cast a great deal of doubt as to the existence of ecosystem recovery of stability in regards to the dynamics after a stressor event. ... - tailieumienphi.vn