SREL Reprint #2016

Toxicants as selective agents in population and community dynamics

Ronald K. Chesser and Derrick W. Sugg

Introduction: Although all sciences depend upon descriptive data and the technologies that aid their collection, synthesis of these data is equally important. Theory plays an important role in the synthetic process; however, its value is not limited to prediction. Modeling nature, at all levels of organization, provides much insight into the workings of our world. As with theory, models developed to explore theoretical issues are important not only for predictive purposes, but because they offer understanding. In this manuscript, we explore some of the theoretical issues of ecotoxicology by modeling some of the processes in ecosystems.
One may ask why ecotoxicology is so descriptive. The answer probably lies partly in our recent interest in some of the issues dealt with by ecotoxicologists. After all, the theory of natural selection was based on keen observations and descriptions made by Charles Darwin (1845), and only later synthesized into a coherent theory (Darwin, 1859, 1871). Another consideration is that ecotoxicology is the melding of two disciplines (ecology and toxicology), crossing the boundaries of many sciences (i.e., chemistry, geology, and biology). Ecotoxicologists often fail to recognize that these sciences and disciplines already have well-developed theories that can aid in our new pursuits. Novel questions associated with ecotoxicology have been the impetus for the new description and techniques that have proliferated in the literature. Description is a natural result of curiosity and, without that curiosity, it is unlikely that we would have even recognized the problems that ecotoxicologists are so concerned with today. As has been so eloquently and succinctly stated by Levin (1989), "theory in the absence of data is sterile, data without theory is uninterpretable." It is important that ecotoxicologists draw on all of the strengths, whether they be synthetic or descriptive, of other fields if it is to become a viable discipline, much as conservation biology has done. This approach is particularly important because much of the very existence of ecotoxicology is owed to the needs of regulatory bodies dealing with crises.

SREL Reprint #2016

Chesser, R.K. and D.W. Sugg. 1996. Toxicants as selective agents in population and community dynamics. pp. 293-317 In: M. C. Newman and C. H. Jagoe (Eds.). Ecotoxicology: A Hierarchical Treatment. CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, FL.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).