| Submodel | State variables |
Spatial resolution |
Temporal resolution |
Dynamic approach |
| Hydrology | flows, stages | reach (15 miles); depth slice (2 feet) | hour (diurnal flows); month (GCD release volumes) | historical input data; user "shapes" Glen Canyon outflow policy |
| Sediment transport | suspended sediment concentrations, sand mass storage | morphology types (channel margins, eddies, main-channel pools); depth slices within reaches | hour (effect of diurnal flow on maximum stage, storage potential); month (mass balance, storage) | historical/modeled sediment inputs, tributary rating curves, mass balance monthly change |
| Aquatic primary production | benthic algal biomass | depth slices within reaches | hour (primary production, mortality); month (mean biomass) | average biomass predicted from equilibrium of biomass rate equations |
| Riparian plant communities | relative biomass/area by vegetation type | substrate types (e.g., sand, rock); depth slices within reaches | month (flooding event impacts); year (biomass production, competition) | flood duration/mortality curves, logistic growth and competition equations |
| Aquatic and terrestrial insect production | grazer and filter feeder biomass/area, drift biomass concentration | reach (slices within reach for mortality estimates) | month | numerical integration of biomass dynamics equations |
| Vertebrate indicator species | juvenile age structure, adult numbers, and biomass | reach, tributary and backwater area per reach | month (juvenile predation, habitat effects); year (adult growth, survival) | monthly juvenile survival as solution to ordinary differential equation; annual adult change by delay-difference model |