An energy budget agent-based model of earthworm populations and its application to study the effects of pesticides.

ABSTRACT: Earthworms are important organisms in soil communities and so are used as model organisms in environmental risk assessments of chemicals. However current risk assessments of soil invertebrates are based on short-term laboratory studies, of limited ecological relevance, supplemented if necessary by site-specific field trials, which sometimes are challenging to apply across the whole agricultural landscape. Here, we investigate whether population responses to environmental stressors and pesticide exposure can be accurately predicted by combining energy budget and agent-based models (ABMs), based on knowledge of how individuals respond to their local circumstances. A simple energy budget model was implemented within each earthworm Eisenia fetida in the ABM, based on a priori parameter

SUBMITTER: Johnston AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4375675 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature