HR: 09:00h
AN: NB41E-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Predicting Ecosystem Responses with AQUATOX, a Mechanistic Fate and Effects Model
AU: * Park, R A
EM: dickpark@cableone.net
AF: Eco Modeling, 5522 Alakoko Pl, Diamondhead, MS 39525 United States
AU: Wellman, M C
EM: wellman.marjorie@epamail.epa.gov
AF: US Environmental Protection Agency, SHPD/OST (MC 4305T) 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460 United States
AB: AQUATOX, a mechanistic fate and effects model, simulates the significant physical, chemical, and biological processes affecting aquatic biota. The user can represent the food web with as little or as much complexity as desired. Generality is balanced with site specificity. The parameters governing the biological processes are designed to be as general as possible, such that a parameter set for a group of organisms should transfer from site to site with little or no recalibration. For example, maximum photosynthetic rates for specific plants should be "global," but the predicted time-varying site photosynthetic rates change with temperature, nutrients, light, and toxic chemicals. AQUATOX also contains informative analytical tools. Control and Perturbed simulations isolate the effects of the differences due to a particular stressor, much like a controlled laboratory experiment. The predicted in situ rates due to ecological processes (such as consumption, mortality, and reproduction) and limitations on photosynthesis can be saved and graphed, enabling the analyst to identify the important processes and environmental controls operating at any given time. Built-in uncertainty analysis allows the user to test which driving variables and parameters are most important to the particular endpoints of interest. Examples of simulations of stream ecosystems will be given.
DE: 1845 Limnology
DE: 1851 Plant ecology
DE: 1871 Surface water quality
DE: 4815 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics
DE: 4842 Modeling
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly