A new perspective of environmental stress in heterogeneously contaminated landscapesbeyond the individual effect
type: CreativeWork
description: he use of chemical products for human health, agricultural, and industrial activities is steadily increasing worldwide. These chemicals and their metabolites can be released either- directly or indirectly- into aquatic environments, leading to negative impacts on aquatic biota. To detect the effects of contaminants on organisms and to support ecosystem protection, Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) has traditionally relied on forced exposure approaches, in which organisms are continuously exposed to contaminants. While useful, this method overlooks the connectivity among habitats and the spatial heterogeneity of contamination. In natural systems, habitats are not uniformly contaminated and are often interconnected, allowing many organisms to migrate between them in search of more favorable conditions. Therefore, it is essential to broaden the framework through which toxicity is assessed. A recently developed, non-forced exposure approach- reflecting natural environmental connectivity- offers an ecologically relevant means of evaluating the consequences of pollution in chemically heterogeneous aquatic ecosystems. This method integrates novel ecological concepts into ERA, including avoidance/repellence and preference behaviors (from a habitat selection perspective), the meta-ecosystem framework (considering habitat heterogeneity and connectivity), colonization (focusing on ecosystem recovery and attractiveness), and habitat fragmentation (recognizing that chemical barriers can isolate populations spatially). In the present PhD study, it has been hypothesized that contamination in aquatic environments may interfere with the organisms' habitat selection process and alter the natural response of organisms to a stressor. However, it is difficult to simulate chemically heterogeneous habitats, which are connected and that can be selected by organisms. Therefore, different scale multi-compartmented systems (HeMHAS- Heterogeneous Multi-Habitat Assay System) were built to pro…
abstract: he use of chemical products for human health, agricultural, and industrial activities is steadily increasing worldwide. These chemicals and their metabolites can be released either- directly or indirectly- into aquatic environments, leading to negative impacts on aquatic biota. To detect the effects of contaminants on organisms and to support ecosystem protection, Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) has traditionally relied on forced exposure approaches, in which organisms are continuously exposed to contaminants. While useful, this method overlooks the connectivity among habitats and the spatial heterogeneity of contamination. In natural systems, habitats are not uniformly contaminated and are often interconnected, allowing many organisms to migrate between them in search of more favorable conditions. Therefore, it is essential to broaden the framework through which toxicity is assessed. A recently developed, non-forced exposure approach- reflecting natural environmental connectivity- offers an ecologically relevant means of evaluating the consequences of pollution in chemically heterogeneous aquatic ecosystems. This method integrates novel ecological concepts into ERA, including avoidance/repellence and preference behaviors (from a habitat selection perspective), the meta-ecosystem framework (considering habitat heterogeneity and connectivity), colonization (focusing on ecosystem recovery and attractiveness), and habitat fragmentation (recognizing that chemical barriers can isolate populations spatially). In the present PhD study, it has been hypothesized that contamination in aquatic environments may interfere with the organisms' habitat selection process and alter the natural response of organisms to a stressor. However, it is difficult to simulate chemically heterogeneous habitats, which are connected and that can be selected by organisms. Therefore, different scale multi-compartmented systems (HeMHAS- Heterogeneous Multi-Habitat Assay System) were built to pro…
author: Islam, Mohammed Ariful
language: eng
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
date published: 2025-11-20
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:29:24Z
provider: Universidad de Cadiz
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Universidad de Cadiz

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10498/38192