Environmental toxicology as finterdisciplinary scientific direction: origins and contemporary experience (review)

The article analyses the historical development of ecotoxicology as a young interdisciplinary branch of environmental sciences that uses the entire arsenal of knowledge of natural and exact sciences to create its theoretical framework, terms, tasks, and research methods. The paper describes the achievements, current trends and actual directions of development of ecotoxicology considering their theoretical and practical significance. Nowadays ecotoxicology has formed a set of data on effects and behaviors of ecotoxicants in populations and communities of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This set of data is at the heart of the theoretical foundation of the doctrine on functioning of biosystems under ecotoxicological stress, assessment of systems conditions by bioindication and bioassay techniques, approaches to develop of ecotoxicants regulation within the framework of the concept of acceptable environmental impact on ecosystems. Special attention is paid to multi-vector nature of ecotoxicological research, its cooperation with other areas of science and technology and contribution to the solution of environmental, economic and political challenges of our time.