Ecotoxicology is a highly interdisciplinary science that integrates knowledge basis of toxicology, ecology, and chemistry et al. to address complex environmental challenges related to contaminants and their effects on organisms, including humans.

I will touch on principles fundamental to the discipline and give global, national, and regional examples of our every-day 'exposure' to ecotoxicology.  During the Colloquium, I will convey selected advanced concepts such as 'bioaccumulation' and 'biomagnification' through examples from collaborative research on spatial and temporal trends of mercury in Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus) in Nunavut and ongoing research on the mercury transfer in aquatic food webs near the coastal community of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories.

Finally, I will present a synthesis of how these approaches of addressing environmental challenges could be applied in Northern BC, using examples such as the Tohoku-Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan in March 2011, as well as proposed resource extraction projects, from the perspective of an ecotoxicologist.