A physiologically driven mathematical simulation model as a tool for extension of results from laboratory tests to ecosystem effects

One of the great challenges in ecotoxicology is to extrapolate results from exposure-effect experiments in the laboratory to a prediction or understanding of exposure-effect relationships at ecosystem level. A range of tests has been developed or is under development (Kula et al., 1995) for the assessment of exposure - effect relationships in terrestrial systems. Most of these are single-species tests and the interpretation of the results are problematic because they do not include the interactions, which take place in a community consisting of a large number of interacting species under natural climatic conditions