The idea to hold at walls of Moscow University the scientific forum of experts- environmentalists has been born and started to be realized before the publication of the Decree of the President of Russian Federation of 10.12.2012 “On conducting in 2013 the Year of Protection of Environment”.
But so happened that the time of our conference fits into the Year of Environment. Current approaches to assessment of environmental quality should be focused primarily on biotic indices. Chemical analyzes show only the presence of “markers” - specific concentrations of pollutants, which have very limited value for the prediction and assessment the state of living organisms, communities and ecosystems in general. However, it is very difficult to implement such a concept of ecological control into environmental practice. For the environmental soil science the theoretical bases implementing the concept of biotic regulation of harmful impacts on soil were the most important thesis on the structural and functional role of soil in ecosystems and the biosphere (Dobrovolsky, Nikitin, 1990, 2000) A good start to development the fundamentals of soil biodiagnostics, improvement of test methods, and practical use of living organisms in the environmental quality assessment gave the All-Russian meeting, held at the Department of Soil Science in 1976. Today we gratefully recall employees of Soil Science Faculty, organizers of Soil Biological Indication Meeting, and with special warmth we appreciate the contribution of Professor Julius Geltzer (1932-1997). International Conference “Bioindication in the Ecological Assessment of Soils and Related Habitats” (Bioindication-2013) aims to share knowledge on bioindication and biotesting the negative impacts on the environment between the very broad range of specialists: soil scientists, hydrobiologists, microbiologists, zoologists, botanists, biochemists, biophysicists, geneticists, specialists in genetic engineering and molecular biology, etc. We expect, that the result of such multilateral discussions will enrich us with the new scientific ideas and methods from related disciplines, which will contribute to the development of methodological principles and methods of assessment not only soil but also related habitats. Soil with the heterogeneity of its organo-mineral matrix, a complex set of humic substances is a rather complicated object for the development of environmental assessment systems. Regular methods of biological assessment, especially methods of bioassay, legitimized for practical solutions, have been developed mostly in hydrobiological studies.
Many questions and debates always causes the problem of choosing a “background” site or a “control” sample under conditions of very limited undisturbed areas, in an environment exposed to new influencing factors, from new products and wastes of technologies, bio-and nano-materials up to global climate change. Therefore, special attention at the conference is paid to methodology of environmental assessment and the concept of environmental regulation, sources of impacts to be monitored and their impact on the ecological quality of soil, water and air environments. A large number of studies devoted to zoo-, phyto-, microbiological and molecular genetic indication of natural environments in the natural, agricultural and urban ecosystems are widely presented. A number of toxicity assessment techniques both for natural environments and industrial objects, and wastes are suggested. However, the question about information content and reproducibility of bioassay methods in various application areas for evaluation of liquid and solid- phase heterogeneous media remains relevant. Models and approaches reflecting the integration of data of chemical, toxicological and environmental studies for the construction of an adequate environmental assessment system are actively developed, and the toxicity bioassays and bioindicative indices are of the high importance. The willingness to participate in this forum have expressed both leading experts, and young scientists from 16 countries: Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia , USA, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Finland, Czech Republic. European and American scientists participating at this conference represent big international professional societies - Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) and the International Society of Environmental Indicators (ISEI). The initiative of SETAC Europe for the organization of SETAC Russian branch has found strong support in different regions of Russia and the former Soviet Union, which will undoubtedly contribute to greater integration of environmental professionals in a world community. Even from the abstracts included in this volume, is clearly seen that the International Conference reflects the desire of scientists from different areas of the environmental sciences, to the consolidation of research efforts to address the fundamental and practical issues of environmental protection. Gleb Dobrovolsky, Academician Vera Terekhova, D.Sc.