Genetics and ecotoxicology-insights from the interface

The ten contributions to this volume address a number of key issues that, taken together, summarize our current understanding of the relationship between genetics and ecotoxicology. They do so from very different perspectives-they examine different taxonomie groups and contaminan! classes, use different methodological techniques, and approach their questions using a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches. Whal emerges from an analysis of these contributions are some important, and a few surprising, conclusions that bear on the consequences of toxicant exposure for genetic variability, the importance of genetic variation in determining organism responses to toxicants, and the extent to which the study of genetic variation has a role to play in ecological risk assessment. In addition, gaps in our present understanding of genetic and ecotoxicological processes have been identified that suggest important challenges for future work in these fields. Copyright.