(Validity of environmental transfer models)

Abstract

BIOMOVS (BIOspheric MOdel Validation Study) is an international cooperative study initiated in 1985 by the Swedish National Institute of Radiation Protection to test models designed to calculate the environmental transfer and bioaccumulation of radionuclides and other trace substances. The objective of the symposium and workshop was to synthesize results obtained during Phase 1 of BIOMOVS (the first five years of the study) and to suggest new directions that might be pursued during Phase 2 of BIOMOVS. The travelers were an instrumental part of the development of BIOMOVS. This symposium allowed the travelers to present a review of past efforts at model validation and a synthesis of current activities and to refine ideas concerning future development of models and data for assessing the fate, effect, and human risks of environmental contaminants. R. H. Gardner also visited the Free University, Amsterdam, and the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM) in Bilthoven to confer with scientists about current research in theoretical ecology and the use of models for estimating the transport and effect of environmental contaminants and to learn about the European efforts to map critical loads of acid deposition.