Aquatic Ecotoxicology

Catherine Mouneyrac is a professor in marine ecotoxicology at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest (France). She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in animal physiology, aquatic ecology and ecotoxicology. She gained her PhD from the University of Lyon I (France) in physiology of fish nutrition, and then a DSc in aquatic ecotoxicology from the University of Nantes (France). She is the dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest and the head of the emerging contaminants research team of the MMS (Sea, Molecules, Health) unit (LUNAM University). Her general field research concerns the response of aquatic organisms to natural and chemical stress. She is actively involved in research to elucidate the mechanisms involved in potential toxicity by nanomaterials and endocrine disruptors towards estuarine and marine organisms. At the interface of fundamental and applied research, she aims to fulfill the gap between ecological (bio indicators) and ecotoxicological (biomarkers) approaches, the final objective being to help environmental diagnosis. More precisely, she studies biomarker tools allowing extrapolating from suborganismal responses (biochemical biomarkers, energy reserves, reproduction processes) and organismal (biological indices, behavioural biomarkers) to effects occurring at higher levels of biological organization (population). C. Mouneyrac has participated to the conception and realization of numerous national, European and international programmes. She has published more than 75 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in the field of aquatic ecotoxicology. She is referee for numerous international journals on environmental pollution. She is member of different research networks in environmental pollution assessment. Dr C. Mouneyrac is part of the Expert committee on the assessment of the risks related to physical agents, new technologies and development areas and member of the working group “Assessment of the risks associated with nanomaterials” at the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses). She has been selected as a senior decision-makers a to follow the national study course of the Institut des Hautes Etudes pour la Science et la Technologie whose supervision is the responsibility of the Ministries of Higher Education and Research and Education in France.

• IntroductionConventional Risk AssessmentRetrospective Assessment and Environmental MonitoringHow to Improve Exposure AssessmentFrom Incorporation to ToxicityFrom Microcosms to Mesocosms and FieldIndividual BiomarkersOmicsReference SpeciesEndobenthic Invertebrates as Reference SpeciesFilter-feeding Bivalves as Reference Species in the Water ColumnGammarids as Reference Species in FreshwaterCopepods as Reference Species in Estuarine and Marine WatersFish as Reference Species in Different Water MassesBiological Responses at Supra-individual LevelsEcotoxicological Risk of Endocrine DisruptorsEcotoxicological Risk of Personal Care Products and PharmaceuticalsEcotoxicological Risk of NanomaterialsEcotoxicological Risk of MixturesGeneral Conclusions