A Physiological Basis of Population Processes: Ecotoxicological Implications

Abstract

Environmental toxicologists often want to use bioassays that can be carried out quickly, easily, and hence inexpensively on individual organisms, to make predictions about long-term impacts of toxicants at an ecological level (Maltby & Calow, 1990). More fundamentally, it is of interest for population dynamicists to understand to what extent processes within individuals, as compared with interactions between them, contribute to population changes (Metz & Diekmann, 1986). Here we explore models that provide the basis of links between physiological and population processes and point out some implications for the application of physiological bioassays in ecotoxicology.