Webinar organized by the Catalan Institute for Water Research – ICRA

Date: 04/05/2020

The use of avoidance in organisms as an ecotoxicological response:
How to measure it and what can it tell us about contamination?

The researchers Julio López Doval y Anna Freixa from the Catalan Institute for Water Research – ICRA organized a webinar in which the following ideas were discussed:

i. the ecological importance of the ecotoxicity assays with multi-compartmented exposure systems

ii. the contribution of the use of the avoidance response to assess the effects of the contamination on the habitat selection processes by organisms

Speaker: Cristiano V.M. Araújo

Date: 04/05/2020

Time: 10:00

Platform: Zoom

DOWNLOAD OF THE PRESENTATIONS SLIDES HERE

The risks of the contamination in the aquatic ecosystems are mainly based on the toxicity of the chemicals for the organisms. This toxicity implies changes in the health state and homeotasis of the organisms and populations. However, it has been shown that, if the possibility to escape towards less disturbed areas exists, some organisms can avoid contamination, thus decreasing or even eliminating the exposure to the contaminants. This new approach focuses on if organisms select their habitat considering the spatial distribution of the contaminants: The contamination-driven habitat selection approach. The avoidance response discussed in this lecture provides a complementary approach to ecotoxicology with two important improvements: 

i. new assay systems that can simulate the spatial heterogeneity of the contaminants 

ii. Integration of other factors that can interfere in the habitat selection by the organisms.