Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology

Aquatic ecotoxicology examines how chemical contaminants—particularly heavy metals and pesticides—enter water systems, accumulate through food webs, and disrupt the physiology of fish, invertebrates, and other aquatic organisms. Researchers track these effects partly through biomarkers, measurable biological signals such as oxidative stress responses or enzyme activity changes, which can reveal sublethal harm long before populations visibly decline. A central challenge is translating laboratory toxicity data into reliable environmental risk assessments that account for real-world complexity, including mixtures of contaminants, fluctuating temperatures, and species-specific sensitivities. Active work focuses on identifying which biomarkers best predict ecosystem-level damage and on understanding how climate change may amplify the toxicity of pollutants already present in freshwater and marine environments.

Works

87,359

Total citations

1,692,027

Keywords

BioaccumulationOxidative StressBiomarkersEnvironmental Risk AssessmentAquatic OrganismsMetal Toxicity