Themed Issue Article: Conservation Physiology of Marine Fishes A paradox in individual-based models of populations
Authored by der Meer Jaap van
Date Published: 2016
DOI: 10.1093/conphys/cow023
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Abstract
The standard dynamic energy budget model is widely used to describe the
physiology of individual animals. It assumes that assimilation rate
scales with body surface area, whereas maintenance rate scales with body
volume. When the model is used as the building block of a population
model, only limited dynamical behaviour, the so-called juvenile-driven
cycles, emerges. The reason is that in the model juveniles are
competitively superior over adults, because juveniles have a higher
surface area-to-volume ratio. Maintenance requirements for adults are
therefore relatively large, and a reduced assimilation rate as a result
of lowered food levels will easily become insufficient. Here, an
alternative dynamic energy budget model is introduced that gives rise to
adult-driven cycles, which may be closer to what is often observed in
reality. However, this comes at the price of a rather odd description of
the individual, in that maintenance scales with body area and
assimilation rate with body volume, resulting in unbounded exponential
body growth. I make a plea to solve the paradox and come up with
reliable descriptions at both the individual and the population level.
Tags
Management
Dynamics