A food chain model of cadmium in western lake Erie

doi:10.1016/0043-1354(74)90031-1

Water Research

Volume 8, Issue 10, October 1974, Pages 841-849

https://doi.org/10.1016/0043-1354(74)90031-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

The simple food chain model illustrated here could prove useful in large scale planning applications provided additional data are collected on the various trophic levels. The model demonstrates the increase in concentration of potentially toxic substances, such as cadmium, as one proceeds up the food chain. The food chain model also illustrates how interactive modeling between complex non-linear and linear compartment model can be accomplished. The problem of verification and data availability are highlighted by the model: estimates of transfer rates and biomass of different trophic levels must be on hand. This model therefore is an example of a modeling structure that is still in an early stage of development; hence the reliance on linear kinetics rather than possibly more realistic non-linear mechanisms. Nevertheless, the spatial-trophic level structure of the model indicates the general behavior of a toxicant such as cadmium when released into the water environment.

References (9)

D.M DiToro
Preliminary Phytoplankton - Zooplankton—Nutrient Model of Western Lake Erie
(1974)

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Cited by (27)

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They are similar to the more complex biogeochemical eutrophication models that consider the nutrient flow through the food chain or even through the food web. Sometimes they are even constructed as submodels of a eutrophication model, see for instance Thomann et al. (1974). Fig. 8.1 shows a conceptual diagram of an ecotoxicological food chain model for lead.
Ecotoxicological models are widely applied first of all for Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA). It has given occasion to development of different types of toxic substance models. We distinguish between fate models and effect models and FTE models that are a combination of fate and effect models. The fate models may be divided into three classes focusing on a region or country, focusing on a specific case and models that are a hybrid of the two classes. The effect models are classified according to the hierarchical level of concern: an organism, a population, an ecosystem, a landscape (region), or the entire ecosphere. Most ecotoxicological models are biogeochemical models because they are based on mass conservation principles, but ecotoxicological models concerned with populations are of course population dynamic models.
The characteristics of ecotoxicological models are presented and in this context we distinguish between food chain models, steady state models of toxic substance flows, toxic substance models in one trophic level, ecotoxicological models in population dynamics, and ecotoxicological models with effect components. A comprehensive overview of ecotoxicological models published the last 40 years is furthermore presented. Many toxic substance models were developed from 1980 to 2000 because the ecotoxicological problems were very much in focus. We are using in the industrialized countries about 100,000 different chemical compounds and it implies of course that we need to use a very high number of parameters to be able to develop models for all these compounds. There is therefore a need for estimation methods to estimate the parameters (the properties) for the compounds that have not been determined by measurements and it is the major number of the 100,000 compounds. An introduction to the estimation methods is included in Section 8.4 of this chapter. A case study is presented to illustrate the considerations that we have to make to model toxic substances in the environment. The last section is devoted to illustrate how models in general, but here illustrated by toxic substance models, can be used as an experimental tool.
Modeling the physiology and toxicology of metals
2011, Fish Physiology
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As for whole-body bioaccumulation models, most food chain models were originally developed for organic chemicals (e.g. Thomann, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1989; Thomann et al., 1991; Mackay, 1989; Gobas, 1993) and subsequently applied to metals. However, one early application of a linear food chain model was an investigation of Cd bioaccumulation in Lake Erie (Thomann et al., 1974). The study demonstrated how food chain and water quality models could be linked to predict biota concentrations from ambient environmental concentrations.
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Ecotoxicological Models
2011, Developments in Environmental Modelling
This chapter discusses ecotoxicological models, which are increasingly applied to assess the environmental risk of chemical emissions to the environment. Ecotoxicological models are distinguished into fate models and effect models. Fate models provide the concentration of a chemical in one or more environmental compartments; for instance, the concentration of a chemical compound in a fish or in a lake. Effect models translate a concentration or body burden in a biological compartment to an effect on either an organism, a population, a community, an ecosystem, a landscape, or the entire ecosphere. Ecotoxicological models are applied for registration of chemicals, to solve site-specific pollution problems, or to follow ecosystem recovery after pollution abatement or remediation has taken place. The chapter highlights that the application of ecotoxicological models up to now has been minor compared to the environmental management possibilities that these models offer and, therefore, there is an urgent need for good ecotoxicological models as well as for wider experience in the applicability of these models.
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Modeling the direct and indirect effects of streptomycin in aquatic microcosms
1989, Aquatic Toxicology
This paper compares the predictions of a multispecies, multi-trophic level aquatic ecosystem model with data from control and streptomycin treated laboratory aquatic microcosms. Preliminary calibration of streptomycin effect is based on single species bioassay experiments, while further calibration, maintaining the same relative species sensitivity, is done on the full microcosm to obtain improved model fits. Other model parameters were calibrated based on values in the literature and on other microcosm experiments. Statistical correlation and t-tests were used, along with graphs, to compare model results with data and overall agreement between the model and data was acceptable. The major discrepancy between the model and data was in the occurrence in the experiment of a very large Scenedesmus bloom whose magnitude was not replicated by the model. This was linked to differences in timing of the post-treatment drop in Daphnia and a larger than expected ammonia release. Experimental work was begun, primarly to investigate the possible source of the ammonia release, directed toward testing hypotheses proposed to explain the source of the model-data discrepancy. The model was shown to be useful in suggesting possible hypotheses to explain model-data discrepancies, to show how different processes dominate in the control and streptomycin treated microcosm and to improve our understanding of the effect of streptomycin on multispecies aquatic systems.

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A food chain model of cadmium in western lake Erie

Abstract

Preliminary Phytoplankton - Zooplankton—Nutrient Model of Western Lake Erie