OOS 62

The Consequences of Anthropogenic Chemical Pollution for Community and Ecosystem Dynamics

Ecotoxicology started as a sub-discipline of toxicology, aspiring to a crossover with ecological concepts and approaches. However, because of its origin, most of the early work focused on effects at the (sub-)organismal or population levels. In those days, studies examining effects on higher levels of biological organisation were exceptional. Since than, ecotoxicologists have increasingly adopted multi-species approaches, but almost exclusively with the objective of obtaining single toxicant concentrations below which community and ecosystem dynamics do not statistically differ from a control (‘threshold’ concentrations, to be used in a regulatory context for product registration). Chemical pollutants represent environmentally significant selection factors, often impacting on specific morphological, physiological and life-history traits that have important functional implications for population, community and ecosystem processes. The usefulness of chemical agents in approaching fundamental ecological questions has been demonstrated by recent contributions by the invited speakers. By grouping them into one session at the 100th ESA meeting, we want to meet the following objectives: (1) To initiate an interdisciplinary discussion between (a) chemical stress ecology, typically focusing on individual (physiology, fitness) and population (evolution) responses and traits, and (b) community and ecosystem ecology, typically not including chemical stressors (which act on both the physiology of the individuals and their ecological interactions); (2) To demonstrate to the ESA community how chemical pollutants represent environmental filters that can be used in setups of experimental studies or detected in field surveys, and could increase our understanding of community- and ecosystem-level processes and patterns. This will introduce a debate on how important are pollutants for contemporary ecosystem dynamics and adaptation to future environmental changes. The session starts with three overview talks, after which we plan a number of more specific talks. We will welcome additional contributions that are able to meet objectives (1-2) by presenting patterns of community or ecosystem response to toxic chemicals, as well as the mechanisms driving these responses. We aim for a mix of experimental, field, and theoretical contributions, and we are particularly interested in approaches with a design that is based on established ecological theory and concepts, with the aim of facilitating discussions with the ESA members. We do not aim for contributions asking questions that are specific to the field of ecotoxicology. Presentations can contain some elements of applied science, but these should not constitute the main topic of the talk.