Integrated modeling of fate and effects of persistent organic pollutants in marine ecosystems

In this report, an integrated model including fate of contaminants and ecological models it is presented. The model has been developed for analysing the effects of contaminants at ecosystem level. The fate model was already presented in a previous report where it was implemented for the major families of POPs: PCDD/Fs, PCBs, PAHs and PBDEs. In this work an ecological model has been incorporated into the fate model and coupled with it in terms of organic matter. The model allows estimating the environmental concentrations of POPs and the main fluxes between compartments, i.e. air/water/sediments and organisms. In addition the model has been validated for PAHs based on experimental data available in literature and it is now used to analyse NERI's mesocosm experiments, where combined effects of nutrients and contaminants are assessed. Furthermore, the model is being validated with other contaminants families as the experimental results from Mediterranean campaigns are starting to be available.