Abstract
The identification and development of biomarkers to assess the biological impact of chemical pollutants has become an important objective in ecotoxicology. Originally viewed as measurable responses at the suborganismal level, Depledge (1994) expanded the definition of an ecotoxicological biomarker to: a biochemical, cellular,physiological or behavioural variation… at the level of whole organisms (either individuals or populations) that provides evidence of exposure (exposure biomarkers) to,and/or effects (health biomarker) of one or more chemical pollutants. Employing this concept, biomarker responses to pollutants can be measured anywhere along the hierarchy of increasing biological complexity from the level of the molecule to the population (Fig. 1). The scientific value and applicability of selected biomarkers depend largely on how closely their responses are related to measured effects at both lower and higher levels of organization. Thus, we must try to establish the mechanistic links by which pollutant effects at one level of organization give rise to higher level effects in order to develop meaningful biomarkers (Depledge, 1994).
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Baatrup, E., Bayley, M. (1998). Animal Locomotor Behaviour as a Health Biomarker of Chemical Stress. In: Seiler, J.P., Autrup, J.L., Autrup, H. (eds) Diversification in Toxicology — Man and Environment. Archives of Toxicology, vol 20. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46856-8_15
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