ECOFATE: A user-friendly environmental fate, bioaccumulation and ecological risk assessment model for contaminants in marine and freshwater aquatic ecosystems -- Applications and validation

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:191291

Zhang, Xin; Gobas, F ^[1]

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1. Simon Fraser Univ., Burnaby, British Columbia (Canada). School of Resource and Environmental Management

A Windows based computer simulation model of the environmental fate, food-chain bioaccumulation, toxicity and ecological and human health risks of contaminants is presented. Case studies demonstrating the models application in a lake, a river and a marine fjord are discussed and results are presented illustrating the ability of the model to estimate environmental concentrations over time based on chemical loadings. The case studies involve (1) the temporal response of PCB and mirex concentrations in water, sediments, benthos, fish and bird species of Lake Ontario, (2) the time response of concentrations of chlorinated dioxins and furans in sediments and fish in the Fraser River to reductions in pulp and paper mill discharges and (3) the fate and bioaccumulation of chlorinated dioxins and PAHs in Vancouver Harbour. The purpose of the studies and the model is to assess the capability to predict the environmental fate and bioaccumulation on an ecosystem level, which is of importance for developing site specific environmental quality criteria and to assess the ecosystem`s assimilative capacity by relating whole ecosystem loading allocations to environmental quality criteria.

• OSTI ID: 191291
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
BIOLOGICAL ACCUMULATION
CANADA
DIOXIN
E CODES
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FISHES
FOOD CHAINS
FORECASTING
FURANS
LAKE ONTARIO
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
RISK ASSESSMENT
RIVERS
WATER POLLUTION