Agency Releases Enhanced Aquatox Model
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Science and Technology, has released an enhanced version of the aquatic ecosystem simulation model AQUATOX.
The PC-based ecosystem model predicts the fate of nutrients and organic chemicals in waterbodies, as well as their direct and indirect effects on the resident organisms.
AQUATOX Release 3 contains enhancements that increase the realism and utility of the model. The most important enhancements include:
- Capability to represent estuaries at a screening level;
- Capability to model multiple linked river and reservoir segments;
- Enhanced nutrients analysis, including nutrient release from sediments, daily dissolved oxygen fluctuations, and toxicity from low oxygen and ammonia;
- Capability to simulate biological effects of suspended and bedded sediments; and
- Expanded data management, graphics and statistical analysis.