Modeling the Accumulation of Contaminants in Aquatic
Organisms
ABSTRACT:
The main dynamic features of the growth of an organism or the accumulation
of contaminants in an environmental media are modeled as a set of
deterministic differential equations. Models of this type are not realistic
because they do not account for natural environmental and or biological
variability. In this talk we discuss how to account for the variability by
including stochastic components in such models and how to use the diffusion
equation to compute the moments of the associated random process. These
moments are required for the use of quasi likelihood methods to making
inferences about unknown parameters. This approach will be illustrated by
modeling the concentration of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) in lake trout
from Lakes Superior and Ontario. Such models are useful for setting advisory
limits on the consumption of Great Lakes fish.
About the Speaker
Abdel El-Shaarawi is a research scientist at the National Water Research
Institute in Burlington. He is also an Adjunct Professor at McMaster
University and the University of British Columbia and a Visiting Professor
at the University of Genoa, Italy. The Founder and past President of the
International Environmetrics Society. The Founder and Editor in Chief of the
Environmetrics Journal and the Encyclopedia of Environmetrics. He is a
Fellow of the American Statistical Association and an Elected Member of the
International Statistical Institute.
References
Some key references are:
A. C. Davison and D.V. Hinkley (1998). Bootstrap Methods and Their
Application. Cambridge University Press.
International Joint Commission, United States and Canada (1994).
Revised Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978.
R. M. May (1974). Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems.
Princeton University Press.
