Environmental biomarkers, as a biological process, encompass the organismal and cellular responses by which living systems detect, transduce, and manifest measurable changes to environmental exposures such as pollutants, radiation, or other stressors. This process involves molecular events including altered gene expression, protein modification, metabolite shifts, and physiological or behavioral changes that collectively encode information about exposure, effect, or susceptibility. These responses generate quantifiable indicators (e.g., specific stress proteins, oxidative damage products, enzyme activities) that integrate dose, duration, and biological impact of environmental factors, thereby serving as mechanistic links between external stressors and ensuing adaptive, toxic, or pathogenic outcomes in organisms and ecosystems.
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