MAM-An Aquivalence-based Dynamic Mass Balance Model for the Fate of Non-Volatile Organic Chemicals in the Agricultural Environment

Abstract

A Multimedia Agricultural Model (MAM) for predicting the fate and transport of Non-Volatile Organic Chemicals (NVOCs) in the agricultural environment was presented. It is an expanded and modified version of the three compartmental model introduced by Batiha and co-authors in 2007, which is an aquivalence-based level IV. MAM considered five environmental compartments to include the air, water, soil, sediment and vegetation. It calculates the complete steady-state mass budgets for the air, water and particulate organic carbon between the model compartments. MAM compartments were connected by advective and intermedia transport processes. Degradation can take place in every compartment. The mass balances for each of the compartments result in a system of five differential equations, solved numerically to yield estimates of concentrations, masses, transport fluxes and reaction rates as a function of time. All the equations required for MAM calculations were provided.