ABSTRACT
Mathematical models have been used to predict the fate of contaminants, but the incomplete knowledge of the relation between the chemicals structure and environmental behavior7 makes predictions uncertain. Mathematical models predict the concentration of contaminants in different compartments, or state variables, according to loading rates into the system, to the rates of degradation, and to transport rates between compartments. Toxic contaminants in the environment might be degraded or converted into other chemicals which might also be toxic. Efraim Halfon has reviewed the database necessary to develop and verify ecosystem fate models. Contaminants are found in water and from there they adsorb into suspended sediments, fish, and algae; suspended sediments might sediment to the bottom of the lake or of the ocean to be buried by other sediments or to be resuspended according to the levels of turbulence near the bottom.
