Environmental prognostics: Is the current use of biomarkers appropriate for environmental risk evaluation?

Environmental Prognostics is proposed as an integrated explanatory framework for adverse changes in whole systems, from cells to animals to ecosystems. The aim is to develop such frameworks for the evaluation of “health of the environment” and prediction of consequences resulting from future environmental events based on integrating the reactions of biomarkers for cellular and physiological processes, through conceptual, statistical and computational modelling. These are urgently needed to synthesise complex information on environmental chemistry and injurious effects of pollutants into predicted harmful impact on health of sentinel animals.