The need for sublethal studies

Abstract

In problems of waste management, the preoccupation of the would-be manager is the means whereby waste may be released to the environment without impairing the health of the biota inhabiting the receiving waters. In such a situation, measurements based upon acute poisoning are unhelpful since they tell nothing of the impact that the much lower concentrations found at some distance from the waste source have upon the ability of the affected organisms to undertake the responses necessary to ensure survival and more particularly to reproduce successfully. Such responses can only be investigated with organisms not at the point of death, i.e. in truly sublethal studies.