| Human and environmental health are overriding issues addressed within Toxicants. These issues are of critical importance in the coastal region of the Southern California Borderland (SCB), which is the second largest urban-population center in the U.S. The SCB is unique among the continental margins of the U.S. One of our main objectives is to determine the natural sources and fluxes of toxicants versus those of anthropogenic origin. This objective is vital to land-use issues in the SCB, including: harbors, recreation, fishing, commerce, extraction of energy resources, and for remediation of pollution. It is also important to study the biota living in areas of natural toxicant accumulation to learn if they have developed biochemical strategies that allow them to live in such stressed environments; biochemicals that may be useful to industry and in medicine. |
