Alternative Framework Incorporating Complexity Theory

The framework presented above is a classical approach to presenting the impacts of chemicals upon various aspects of biological and ecological systems. It is possible that an alternative exists that more accurately portrays the fundamental properties of each aspect of these systems. 

Nonorganismal or ecological structures have fundamentally different properties. There is no central and inheritable repository of information, analogous to the genome, which serves as the blueprint for an ecological system. Furthermore, natural selection is selfish, working upon the phenotype 

Organismal and nonorganismal framework. As the information is passed on to the complex structure, it becomes part of the history of the ecosystem. 

The lack of a blueprint and the many interactions and nonlinear relationships within an ecosystem mean that the history of past events is written into its structure and dynamics. The many nonlinear dynamics and historical nature of ecosystems confer upon the system the property of complexity. 

Complex, nonlinear structures have specific properties, listed by Cambel (1993). A few points particularly critical to how ecosystems react to contaminants are  

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