Ecosystem risk assessment modelling method for emerging pollutants

Lulu Zhang, Jingling Liu, Kinchung Ho

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ecological models are a cost-effective tool to estimate and manage the environmental fate and ecological risk of chemicals. Therefore, the AQUATOX model not only considers the direct toxic effects of chemicals, but also contains the indirect effects of pollutants through food webs. As an example, the AQUATOX model was applied to evaluating the ecological risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a highly anthropogenic disturbance lake - Baiyangdian Lake. PAHs risk-estimate results demonstrate that estimated risk for natural ecosystems cannot be fully explained by single-species toxicity data alone. The AQUATOX model could provide a good basis for ascertaining ecological protection levels of "chemicals of concern" for aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, AQUATOX can potentially be used to provide necessary information corresponding to early warning and rapid forecasting of pollutant transport and fate in the management of chemicals.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvanced Modelling Techniques Studying Global Changes in Environmental Sciences, 2015
EditorsSven Erik, Sovan Lek, Christophe Baehr, Young-Seuk Park
Pages135-162
Number of pages28
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Publication series

NameDevelopments in Environmental Modelling
Volume27
ISSN (Print)0167-8892

Keywords

  • Ecological model
  • Ecological risk assessment
  • Emerging pollutants
  • Pelagic-benthic coupled food web
  • Population level

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Ecosystem risk assessment modelling method for emerging pollutants'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this