ABSTRACT

Our modern life with its technologies and the expanding use of chemicals causes pollution of our environment. Therefore interest in methods to determine the damaging effects of substances to nature, in order to avoid cumulative poisonings or biohazards, is greater than ever. Bioassays are methods that use biological organisms to detect the impact of these substances on a certain species. This procedure is closest to the real life ecological conditions. The range of these bioassays varies between short time tests showing the immediate impact on the movement behavior of freshwater flagellates, long term tests like observation of the growth inhibition of green algae, germinating rate of lettuce seeds and flow-through-tests which monitor the mobility of fish.