Preface
Chemical substances, such as pesticides and metals, have been regulated through the
use of physical and biological containment. However, when trying to regulate field
emissions, an extremely troublesome preservation of such chemicals has been
encountered in ecosystems in addition to the harmful effects on human health and
that of beneficial animals and plants. When incorporating risks to an ecosystem into
regulations, a problem arises with respect to determining what to assess. It is
impossible to study the reaction of biological communities by releasing chemical
substances in nature. This is not limited to chemical substances, as it is also true
when assessing the impacts of genetically modified microorganisms on the ecosystems they inhabit or invade. By breeding specific species of Daphnia, algae, and fish
and from observing and measuring their mortality, growth inhibition, and abnormal
behaviors, attempts have been made to evaluate the impact on ecosystems when
genetically modified microorganisms or new chemicals are introduced. However,
these species are selected for their convenience, such as the ease with which they
may be bred, and their observed reactions; they are totally unrelated to the studied
ecosystems and therefore may not be used to directly evaluate risks to said ecosystems. Meanwhile, it is possible to implement methods of subdividing the target
ecosystem and observing the reactions of local biota to determine the degree of
influence of chemicals and genetically modified organisms. However, because in
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