Abstract |
BASS (Bioaccumulation and Aquatic System Simulator) is a Fortran 95 simulation program that predicts the population and bioaccumulation dynamics of age-structured fish assemblages that are exposed to hydrophobic organic pollutants and class B and borderline metals that complex with sulfhydryl groups (e.g., cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver, and zinc). The model's bioaccumulation algorithms are based on diffusion kinetics and are coupled to a process-based model forthe growth of individual fish. The model's exchange algorithms consider both biological attributes of fishes and physico-chemical properties of the chemicals of concern that determine diffusive exchange across gill membranes and intestinal mucosa. Biological characteristics used by the model include the fish's gill morphometry, feeding and growth rate, and proximate composition (i.e., its fractional aqueous liquid, and structural organic content). Relevant physico-chemical properties are the chemical's aqueous diffusivity, n-octanol/water partition coefficient (K-ow), and for metals, binding coefficients to proteins andother organic matter. BASS simulates the growth of individual fish usinga standard mass balance, bioenergetic model (i.e., growth=ingestion-egestion- respiration-specific dynamic action=excretion). A fish's realized ingestion is calculated from its maximum consumption rate adjusted for the availability of prey of the appropriate size and taxonomy. The community's food web is specified by defining one or more foraging classes for each fish species based on either its body weight, body length, or age. |