UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA --
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
NEWS RELEASE
Contacts:
Jane Sanders; (803) 725-5204; Beeper: (803) 827-4465
Email: [email protected]
Marie Fulmer (803) 725-9724; Beeper: (803) 867-0284
Email: [email protected]
FOR RELEASE JAN. 7, 1996
Scientists gather to predict pollution effects
AIKEN, S.C. -- A relatively new theory that may better enable scientists to predict the effects of pollution and contamination on the environment will be discussed at a symposium at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory Conference Center from Jan. 20-23.
Titled "Resource Allocation Processes: the Connection Between Individual and Population Levels of Biological Organization," the meeting is the fourth in an annual series sponsored by the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Dr. Justin Congdon, an SREL senior researcher and one of the symposium's three organizers, says the meeting is an ambitious attempt to bring together two areas of biology -- resource allocation and life history concepts -- into one theory, which in turn will allow environmental predictions.
Life history theory proponents such as Dr. Congdon and his symposium co-organizers Dr. Arthur E. Dunham of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Peter Niewiarowski of the University of Akron, study individual organisms over their entire lives.
Researchers study how individual animals and plants respond to environmental changes by altering their use of resources to grow, reproduce and store energy for the future. These studies allow scientists to predict how large numbers of the same species will react when exposed to the same environmental changes, Dr. Congdon says. The theory has three parts: how an individual uses its resources; how it responds to outside interference over its lifespan; and how scientists can use data collected from large numbers of the same species to make predictions on the animals' physiological responses to stress.
There are many benefits to society from the research, Dr. Congdon says.
"The theory applies to every environmental condition," he says. "The effects of forest clear cutting, ozone depletion, global warming, chemical pollution, radiation contamination, all should be predictable using the resource allocation approach coupled with individually based life history and physiologically structured models."
The reverse is true of much of the research that is being done today on large populations of animals and plants, the researcher says. Studying the rise and fall of animal and plant populations does not reveal a cause and effect relationship, so it does not allow scientists to predict population responses to the next environmental disturbance, Dr. Congdon says.
The ability to predict the environmental consequences of events would help DOE in its risk assessment programs, Dr. Congdon says. DOE is heavily engaged in determining the level of contamination at its sites across the country. Officials have estimated the cost of this assessment will reach tens of billions of dollars. The level of environmental risk present at each site will have a major impact on the amount of money needed to clean up the site.
Although relatively small in its number of participants, the SREL/DOE symposium will bring together a high level of scientific expertise, Dr. Congdon says.
"We have searched the literature and we are aware of the work being done in this field. We have invited the best people that we know of in the world to present research papers," he says.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
To conduct interviews, you may contact one of the public information officers listed above, or contact the researchers directly. 1. Dr. Justin Congdon, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, (803) 725-5341, or email: [email protected]
2. Dr. Arthur E. Dunham, University of Pennsylvania, 215-898-4117. 3. Dr. Peter Niewiarowski, University of Akron, 330-972-7311.
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