002 | Ecotoxicology in a changing planet: challenges and opportunities in the Anthropocene

Paolo Pastorino¹, Antonia Concetta Elia², Monia Renzi³, Caterina Faggio^4|5, Marino Prearo¹, Damià Barceló⁶ | ¹Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta, Torino, Italy; ²Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, Italy; ³Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy; ⁴Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Italy; ⁵Department of Ecosustainable Marine Biotechnology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy; ⁶Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of Almería, Carretera Sacramento, Almería, Spain.

Ecotoxicology is changing rapidly as the planet enters the Anthropocene, a period marked by strong human influence on climate, ecosystems, and chemical pollution. Traditional ecotoxicology has mainly focused on the effects of single chemicals on individual species under controlled laboratory conditions. However, this approach is no longer sufficient to understand the complex environmental problems that organisms face today. In natural ecosystems, chemical pollutants act together with other stressors such as increasing temperature, changes in water availability, habitat degradation, invasive species, and emerging pathogens. These stressors often interact with each other, leading to effects that are difficult to predict using standard single-stressor experiments. One of the main challenges for modern ecotoxicology is therefore to improve ecological realism and to better connect biological responses measured at the molecular or physiological level with effects on populations and ecosystems. This talk discusses the main challenges and opportunities for ecotoxicology in a changing planet. It highlights the need to move from simplified laboratory tests toward integrative approaches that combine field studies, mesocosm experiments, and ecological modeling. New tools, including molecular techniques, behavioral endpoints, environmental DNA, and automated environmental sensors, are helping to detect early signs of stress and to better understand multiple-stressor effects under realistic conditions. Remote and sensitive ecosystems, such as high-mountain lakes, are presented as valuable natural laboratories for studying the combined impacts of climate change and chemical contamination. Their relatively simple food webs and strong exposure to global change make them ideal systems for testing new ecotoxicological concepts. Finally, the talk emphasizes the importance of green and sustainable ecotoxicology, which promotes environmentally relevant testing, reduced animal use, and improved predictive power. By adopting more holistic and forward-looking approaches, ecotoxicology can play a key role in protecting ecosystems and supporting environmental decision-making in the Anthropocene.