Ecotoxicology - History

History

The publication in 1962 of Rachel Carson's seminal volume, Silent Spring catalysed the separation of environmental toxicology - and, subsequently, ecotoxicology - from classical toxicology. The revolutionary element in Carson's work was her extrapolation from single-organism effects to effects at the whole ecosystem and the "balance of nature"

The term "ecotoxicology" was coined by René Truhaut in 1969 who defined it as "the branch of toxicology concerned with the study of toxic effects, caused by natural or synthetic pollutants, to the constituents of ecosystems, animal (including human), vegetable and microbial, in an integral context”

Although initially devoted to the study of anthropogenic toxicants the term is now used to describe research into the ecological effects of diverse abiotic and biotic stresses. Thereby integrating secondary effects of anthropogenic activities such as ocean acidification resulting from increased dissolution of carbon dioxide into the surface waters of the oceans It has been proposed that this broadening of focus from purely toxicological effects to the consideration of more general stressors moves beyond the definition of "ecotoxicology". Van Straalen (2003) in particular, argued that the field had diversified to become Stress Ecology and that, as the effects of anthropogenic toxicants compound existing, natural stressors, exclusive study of their effects in an ecological context was nonsensical. Whilst this proposal is well argued, it is odd of Van Straalen to have specified solely "ecology" as the field when the original field of ecotoxicology was intended to cover all levels of biological organisation from molecular-level causes to ecosystem-level effects. Therefore the term Stress Biology would seem more appropriate.