Describing microbial degradation processes with the EVOLON model

Abstract

The remediation of polluted soils by microbial communities is a complex process, characterized by many competitive and cooperative mutual relations between the individual organisms. For the overall characteristic of such processes, top-down systems analyses promise a better description for prognostic aims than bottom-up approaches. This is demonstrated using the EVOLON model to fit the cumulative O2 consumption data of a microbial ecosystem metabolizing diesel fuel in polluted soil. The EVOLON is a generic top-down model providing close approximation to the experimental data. The advantage of using this model instead of other similar models is demonstrated by a comparison of the deviations between model values and experimental data (residuals).