A 1-D Aquatic Ecosystem/Ecotoxicology Model in Open Channels

An aquatic ecology/ecotoxicology model has been incorporated into a one-dimensional modeling package for simulating hydrodynamic, sediment transport, contaminant transport, water quality, aquatic ecosystem, and ecotoxicology in channel networks. The model calculates water temperature, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and considers a basic food web structure consisting of four trophic levels: phytoplankton, zooplankton, forage fish, and predatory fish. It simulates the bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals in organisms and takes into account the effects of toxicity on the growth, grazing, and gamete mortality of the organisms. The model has been tested by simulating the water quality, aquatic ecosystem, PCB transport and bioaccumulation in the Upper Hudson River, New York, showing promising results.