The study looked at how organic chemicals affect aquatic life by focusing on their chemical activity. By analyzing over 2000 toxicity data points, researchers found that the level of chemical activity in the water correlated with how toxic the chemicals were to algae, aquatic invertebrates, and fish. Acute toxicity occurred at higher activity levels, while chronic toxicity occurred at lower levels. This suggests that chemical activity can help predict and understand the toxicity of organic chemicals to aquatic organisms, which could improve testing methods and regulations for these substances.