Spatially-Dynamic Ecological Risk Assessment at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. G. Gonzales, R. Ryti, A. Gallegos, P. Newell, C. Bare, K. Bennett, J. Biggs, S. Koch, M. Mullen, O. Myers, L. Soholt, R. Vocke, and W. Wenzel; Los Alamos National Laboratory, Neptune and Co., Inc., and Environmental Health Associates
The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) uses multiple lines of evidence to manage biological resources that are potentially impacted by small levels of contamination occurring in environmental media in some areas of its 43 square miles. Biological resource management objectives created the need to conduct spatially-expansive assessments of broad-ranging organisms or organisms that are well distributed across the Pajarito Plateau. ECORSK.6 is a custom FORTRAN model that was developed for conducting spatially-dynamic ecological risk assessments at LANL. ECORSK.6 integrates GIS data on environmental contamination, animal distribution, and animal movements with other types of information such as contaminant toxicity so that animal exposures to contaminants can be estimated and compared to toxicity reference values (TRVs). ECORSK.6 and GIS were used to assess potential impact to the Rocky Mountain elk, the American robin, the deer mouse, and federally-listed threatened and endangered species across expansive areas of semi-desert and forested habitat. GIS gridded maps serve as the spatial basis for model input, operation, and output. Simulated foraging is weighted exponentially based on distance from randomly selected animal focal points or nest sites. Home ranges are scalable and can be angled to account for natural tendencies of foraging such as based on topography or prey distribution. The GIS is also used to model animal distribution based on habitat suitability indices. For example, from elk GPS data home ranges are calculated and habitat frequency associations are intersected with land cover data to estimate relative habitat use across the Pajarito Plateau. The suitability indices are then used by ECORSK.6 in assigning animal density and weighted foraging schemes. "Source" and "sink" hazard quotients and hazard indices by specific geographical location are generated by ECORSK.6 and manually exported for GIS mapping.
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