Course Description
An introduction to the toxic effects of contaminants on non-
human organisms, types of contaminants impacting ecosystems,
fate and transport of contaminants in the environment, effects
of contaminants at various levels of biological organization
ranging from biochemical reactions in the cell to ecosystem
function, and ecological risk assessment.
Athena Title
Fundamentals of Ecotoxicology
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ECOL 4600, EHSC 4600, FISH 4600, ECOL 6600, EHSC 6600, FISH 6600
Prerequisite
[(BIOL 1108 or BIOL 2108H) and BIOL 1108L] and CHEM 2211
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students will understand how to identify sources and types of contaminants affecting ecosystems.
- Students will understand how to predict the fate of environmental contaminants based on chemical-physical properties of the chemical.
- Students will understand how chemicals are absorbed, metabolized, and excreted.
- Students will understand how to assess toxic effects of contaminants at the biochemical, cellular, individual, population, community and ecosystem level.
- Students will understand how to perform an ecological risk assessment.
Topical Outline
- Introduction to ecotoxicology
- Chemical fate
- Organic contaminants
- Inorganic contaminants
- Bioaccumulation
- Factors influencing bioaccumulation
- Bioaccumulation from food
- Lethal effects
- Populations
- Communities and ecosystems
- Landscape and global
- Ecological risk assessment
- Sublethal effects on individuals
- Cells, tissues, organs
- Molecular effects and biomarkers
