Versuch einer politischen und wissenschaftlichen Standortbestimmung

The paper presents a critical survey as to which extent various concept formations and applications from the ecotoxicological area deserve the attribute ‘scientific’. Among these are down-played names for biotests and often nearly constrainedly applied slogans like ‘from molecule to ecosystem’. These kind of phrases are called ‘ecospeak’. The author discusses as to how, e.g., the aforementioned slogan can give rise to scientific illfounded suggestions that molecular mechanisms can directly be extrapolated to the level of individuals and populations. He scrutinizes the belief in the ability to predict the behavior of communities and the biodiversity of habitats in the open landscape by using mechanistic concepts and models. The non-critical use of species-sensitivity distributions and the NOEC-determination using results from mesocosm experiments are also seen as a problem. The author criticizes the lack of environmental standards for the open landscape and advocates for a strong enhancement of research policy and funding. The deliberately subjective perceptions intend to initiate a discussion, as broad as possible, on the status quo in Ecotoxicology.