Models for ecotoxicological risk assessment
Ecological numeric modelling becomes increasingly important for the environmental risk analysis of plant protection products. Models can be used, for example, to support the evaluation of experimental studies as well as to extrapolate experimental results to complex field situations.
gaiac has many years of experience in the development and application of dynamic simulation models (compartment and individual-based models). As part of the ecological risk assessment of pesticides, we offer the dynamic modeling of populations and communities under complex conditions. For specific questions existing models can be adapted, and new models can be develop.
Currently the following numeric models are available:
Fate and behaviour of xenobiotics in food webs
- Food Chain Models: Modelling the bioaccumulation of pesticides in aquatic and terrestrial food chains
Individual-based population models (IBMs)
- IBM Chaoborus: Population model for the phantom midge (Chaoborus crystallinus), Diptera)
- IDamP: Water flea (Daphnia magna) population model under laboratory conditions (Dr. T. Preuss, RWTH Aachen University)
- Modelling aquatic populations in outdoor mesocosms: Hybrid model, which combines a compartment lake model (StoLaM) and individual-based population models under field conditions (e.g. IDamP)
Aquatic ecosystem models
- StoLaM: A complex water quality model for lakes
gaiac is involved as an associated partner in the EU project “Mechanistic Effect Models for Ecological Risk Assessment of Chemicals (CREAM)
Concerning the question of which environmental factors should be considered in protective population modelling see also:
Preuss TG, Strauss T, Ratte HT (2008): How detailed do we have to model populations to predict extinction probabilities and recovery time? Poster presentation, 18th SETAC-Europe Annual Meeting, Warschau, Polen.
