Modeling Population and Ecosystem Response to Sublethal Toxicant Exposure

The ecological effects of environmental stress occur within complex communities and ecosystems. Prior to the current award, the PIs formulated and tested general dynamic energy budget models characterizing the response of individual organisms to toxicants, and developed methodology for using these models to predict population dynamics. They also developed new theory describing the trophic dynamics of open systems. They now propose to use these advances as the basis of research to test the predictive power and limitations of an individual-based approach to understanding the impact of pollutants on the dynamics of marine communities and ecosystems with multiple trophic levels.