Assessing the performance of a biomagnification model using spatially distributed field data

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:33569

Cothern, K A; Toll, J E ^[1]; Applehans, F ^[2]; Armstrong, J P ^[3]

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1. Enserch Environmental Corp., Bellevue, WA (United States)
2. Enserch Environmental Corp., Lakewood, CO (United States)
3. Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Commerce City, CO (United States)

Biomagnification models are powerful tools for ecological risk assessment, especially if they can be parameterized to incorporate site specific characteristics pertaining to bioavailability, trophic relationships, biota exposure behavior, and spatial patterns of contamination in the exposure media. To encourage site specificity, the model may be calibrated and/or its performance assessed based on site specific data. The authors discuss a simple empirical model which predicts contaminant concentrations in biota tissue based on spatially averaged exposure soil concentrations using a biomagnification factor (BMF). The model is implemented in ARC/INFO, a geographic information system (GIS). They present a GIS based approach for assessing the performance of alternative BMF values using examples from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA) Ecological risk Assessment. Methods used for compared to classical concepts of model calibration and validation.

• OSTI ID: 33569
• Report Number(s): CONF-9410273--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY
BIOLOGICAL AVAILABILITY
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION