ECOSYSTEM SIMULATION FOR WATER
POLLUTION RESEARCH
W.M. SANDERS III and J.W. FALCO*
* Environmental Protection Agency, Southeast Water Laboratory, National
Pollutants Fate Research Program, College Station Road, Athens, Georgia 30601, USA
INTRODUCTION
In 1958, the Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control, United States Public
Health Service, was requested by Congress to develop water quality projections for all
major United States river basins for the years 1960, 1980, and 2000. As soon as this
project was started, it became obvious that the predictive tools of the day were grossly
inadequate for the task at hand. Thus, before the final report had been completed in
1959, plans were made to improve the predictive modeling capabilities of the Public
Health Service, based on new approaches to mathematical and biophysical modeling of
water quality. The senior author began the effort to construct biophysical models that
could simulate aquatic ecosystems.
During the next four years, much research, planning, organizing, designing,
persuading, and redesigning resulted in the plans and specifications for two unique
research facilities—an "Ecological Energetics Model Chamber" and an "Aquatic Ecology
Chamber"-to be housed in the Southeast Water Laboratory being designed for
construction in Athens, Georgia, in 1965. Funds were allocated for these chambers,
requests for proposals were issued, and a prospective contractor selected; however, before
a contract could be signed, a reorganization of Federal water pollution control activities
pigeon-holed the project for another three years. Finally, in Spring 1969, construction
started on the first of these unique facilities.
This paper describes this facility, the Aquatic Ecosystem Simulator or"AEcoSI,"
which is currently nearing completion and in which preliminary tests are being
conducted.
AEcoS provides controlled environmental conditions that are impossible to attain in
field studies of natural rivers or streams. It facilitates, and economizes on the resources
required for the measurements needed to characterize the chemistry, biology, and physics
governing aquatic ecosystems, or to describe the behavior of a water pollutant. Indeed,
even if a real river and its environment maintained the desired experimental conditions
for a sufficient time, many experiments could not be performed because of unacceptable
adverse effects on water quality.
Despite its intricacies and costs, AEcoS appears to afford the only feasible rigorous
means of studying aquatic ecosystems having sufficient complexity that the research
results will have direct application to current water pollution control problems.
243
POLLUTION RESEARCH
W.M. SANDERS III and J.W. FALCO*
* Environmental Protection Agency, Southeast Water Laboratory, National
Pollutants Fate Research Program, College Station Road, Athens, Georgia 30601, USA
INTRODUCTION
In 1958, the Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control, United States Public
Health Service, was requested by Congress to develop water quality projections for all
major United States river basins for the years 1960, 1980, and 2000. As soon as this
project was started, it became obvious that the predictive tools of the day were grossly
inadequate for the task at hand. Thus, before the final report had been completed in
1959, plans were made to improve the predictive modeling capabilities of the Public
Health Service, based on new approaches to mathematical and biophysical modeling of
water quality. The senior author began the effort to construct biophysical models that
could simulate aquatic ecosystems.
During the next four years, much research, planning, organizing, designing,
persuading, and redesigning resulted in the plans and specifications for two unique
research facilities—an "Ecological Energetics Model Chamber" and an "Aquatic Ecology
Chamber"-to be housed in the Southeast Water Laboratory being designed for
construction in Athens, Georgia, in 1965. Funds were allocated for these chambers,
requests for proposals were issued, and a prospective contractor selected; however, before
a contract could be signed, a reorganization of Federal water pollution control activities
pigeon-holed the project for another three years. Finally, in Spring 1969, construction
started on the first of these unique facilities.
This paper describes this facility, the Aquatic Ecosystem Simulator or"AEcoSI,"
which is currently nearing completion and in which preliminary tests are being
conducted.
AEcoS provides controlled environmental conditions that are impossible to attain in
field studies of natural rivers or streams. It facilitates, and economizes on the resources
required for the measurements needed to characterize the chemistry, biology, and physics
governing aquatic ecosystems, or to describe the behavior of a water pollutant. Indeed,
even if a real river and its environment maintained the desired experimental conditions
for a sufficient time, many experiments could not be performed because of unacceptable
adverse effects on water quality.
Despite its intricacies and costs, AEcoS appears to afford the only feasible rigorous
means of studying aquatic ecosystems having sufficient complexity that the research
results will have direct application to current water pollution control problems.
243