Modeling power-plant impacts on multipopulation systems: application of loop analysis to the Hudson River white perch population

Technical Report · Tue Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:5732416

Barnthouse, L W

The white perch population of the Hudson River suffers unusually high mortality due to impingement and entrainment at power plants. The long-term consequences of this mortality for the Hudson River ecosystem depend in part on interactions between the white perch population and its prey, competitors, and predators, many of which are themselves subject to mortality at power plants. Size multipopulation models were analyzed, using a technique known as loop analysis, to determine how patterns of interaction affect population responses to stress and to identify the parameters that have the greatest influence on those responses. These theoretical results, together with information on life history and vulnerability to power plants for Hudson River fish and macroinvertebrate populations, were used to assess the likely effects of power plant mortality on the white perch population and its prey, competitors, and predators. The results suggest that effects of interactions with other populations are insufficient to offset the effects of entrainment and impingement on the Hudson River white perch population. The results also suggest that if mortality imposed by power plants does cause a substantial decline in the white perch population, then piscivore populations in the Hudson River should not be noticeably affected, a complementary increase in the abundance of competitors that are relatively invulnerable to power plants should occur, and a shift in the distribution of biomass within the white perch population toward the older age classes should occur.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5732416
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR-2250; ORNL/TM-7900; ON: DE82007637
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BIOMASS
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY SOURCES
ENTRAINMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
FISHES
IMPINGEMENT
INTERACTIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MORTALITY
POLLUTION
POPULATION DYNAMICS
POWER PLANTS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
THERMAL EFFLUENTS
THERMAL POLLUTION
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
VERTEBRATES