Toxicology and ecotoxicology of persistent organic microcontaminants in aquatic systems.

Persistent organic pollutants (POP) are a heterogeneous group of chemicals widely distributed in the aquatic environment. Some classes cause adverse effects in the biota at minute concentrations, persist in the environment for a long time, and bioaccumulate in animal tissues. Several strategies exist today to monitor their levels and evaluate their effects in the environment. Particularly, some interesting approaches have recently been developed in the field of biomarkers, although much work seems to be required to study the relationships between toxic responses at different levels of the biological organization of interest and concentration levels in tissues.