Toxicological tests are increasingly used as effective tool to complement the information obtained during the environmental monitoring. Moreover bioassays provide basic knowledge about the health effects of exposure to harmful factors associated with the environment. Toxicity tests might be a source of information about the content of pollutants in the sample, and the possibility of their interactions. They can be considered as the analytical procedure, which involves observation of changes in the indicator organism due to the presence of contamination in the environment. With the bioassays the overall toxicity of the test system is assessed without indicating which compound is toxic. Only summary effect is important. Toxicity tests should be carried out simultaneously with several indicator organisms that have different sensitivity and represent different trophic levels to obtain reliable results. Bacteria, plants and animal organisms are often used as indicator organism. This paper will describe the most popular bioassays.
Authors
Additional information
- Category
- Publikacja monograficzna
- Type
- rozdział, artykuł w książce - dziele zbiorowym /podręczniku w języku o zasięgu międzynarodowym
- Language
- angielski
- Publication year
- 2012
