The role of Dynamic Energy Budgets in conservation physiology

Abstract

The contribution of knowledge, concepts and perspectives from physiological ecology to conservation decision-making has become critical for understanding and acting upon threats to the persistence of sensitive species. Here we review applications of dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory to conservation issues and discuss how this theory for metabolic organization of all life on earth (from bacteria to whales) is well equipped to support current and future investigations in conservation research. DEB theory was first invented in 1979 in an applied institution for environmental quality assessment and mitigation. The theory has since undergone extensive development and applications. An increasing number of studies using DEB modelling have provided valuable insights and predictions in areas that pertain to conservation such as species distribution, evolutionary biology, toxicological impacts and ecosystem management. We discuss why DEB theory, through its mechanistic nature, its universality and the wide range of outcomes it can provide represents a valuable tool to tackle some of the current and future challenges linked to maintaining biodiversity, ensuring species survival, ecotoxicology, setting water and soil quality standards and restoring ecosystem structure and functioning in a changing environment under the pressure of anthropogenic driven changes.

Physiological performance of native and invasive crayfish species in a changing environment: insights from Dynamic Energy Budget models

“…It is our hope that models presented here guide conservation efforts for native species and management strategies for invasive species, fulfilling a much needed role of predictive models in conservation physiology ( Cooke et al , 2013 ; Lavaud et al , 2021 ; Taylor et al , 2019 ). We have used the models to simulate responses (growth and reproduction) of the four species under similar constant environmental conditions: a range of temperatures and a range of scaled food availabilities.…”

“…We explore these issues using Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) models, a proven tool linking stressors to their effects on metabolism and ontogeny of individuals (e.g., Baas et al , 2010 ; Kooijman, 2018 ; Marn et al , 2020 ; see also Lavaud et al , 2021 and DEB library -DEB library of scientific publications containing 1043 items on 31 January 2022, with at least 32 of them containing ‘stress’ in the title: https://www.zotero.org/groups/500643/deb_library/library - for more examples. DEB models predict growth and reproduction of individuals as a function of environmental conditions.…”

Towards environmentally friendly finfish farming: A potential for mussel farms to compensate fish farm effluents

“…DEB applications to shellfish or finfish production are numerous, but have been focussed on growth and reproduction; few studies have analysed nutrient dynamics between the cultivated species and their environment (Filgueira et al, 2015;Galasso et al, 2020;Lavaud et al, 2020;Mangano et al, 2019;Sarà et al, 2018). DEB applications in the IMTA context (Reid et al, 2020) or the quantification of ecosystem services (Lavaud et al, 2021) have F I G U R E 3 Cumulative increase in the nutrient excretion and defecation by a finfish farm during one cultivation cycle (kg). The lines represent predicted minimum, mean and maximum values in the entire study area.…”

Three perspectives on the prediction of chemical effects in ecosystems

“…Methods to reduce resource requirements in laboratory testing or to indirectly obtain key parameters for a model, such as parameter borrowing, pattern‐oriented and artificial evolution approaches, are described elsewhere (Petersen et al, 2008). DEB model parameters have already been collected for more than 3200 species in the Add‐my‐Pet database (AmP, 2022), covering all major phyla (Lavaud et al, 2021). For species sharing the same receptor and pathway and compounds sharing the same MoA, model parameters should be the same and could be used for effect extrapolation to untested chemicals and species based on internal molar concentrations (Gergs et al, 2019; Jager & Kooijman, 2009).…”