Application of ecotoxicological studies in integrated environmental monitoring: Possibilities and problems

The fundamental goal underlying studies of the environment and environmental processes is to be able to evaluate the impact of various contaminants on live organisms, including humans. Until recently, data obtained by common chemical and physicochemical methods were used in environmental risk assessment. However, such data could be characterized as routine and limited to the determinations of chosen toxic substances expressed as generalized chemical indicators of environmental pollution. In recent years, there has been intense development of bioanalytical techniques that employ live organisms as indicators. Biotests detect the presence of toxic substances in the environment, and determine their toxicity in the samples analyzed by quantitatively estimating the harm that they cause to live organisms. Ecotoxicological tests are also employed as one of the tools in comprehensive assessment of the state of the environment. In this case, the environmental data and the information on the impact of pollutants on live organisms are obtained from environmental samples that have been analyzed with both chemical techniques and biotests. In this article, we present the data available on the application of integrated research for assessing the quality of the aquatic environment. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.