ABSTRACT
Benthic organisms are exposed to an array of chemical contaminants associated with sediments. Among the important benthic organisms in the Great Lakes ecosystem, the amphipod Diporeia represents the major benthic invertebrate on a mass basis and constitutes 65% of the Lake Michigan benthic fauna. One of the important chemical classes of sediment-associated contaminants in the Great Lakes are the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The sensitivity studies indicated that the mathematical model was very sensitive to changes in the factors that dictate the uptake from water and the elimination of the compound. Changes in the terms for accumulation from the sediment environment seem to be less important. The uncertainty contributed by the analytical variation in the parameter estimates will result in even larger uncertainty, particularly with regard to the overlying water contribution. Additional efforts will be best spent refining the analytical uncertainty in the water concentration before attempting to address the uncertainty in the model parameters.
