An Individual-Based Model of Zebrafish Population Dynamics Accounting for Energy Dynamics

Authored by Remy Beaudouin, Benoit Goussen, Benjamin Piccini, Starrlight Augustine, James Devillers, Francois Brion, Alexandre R R Pery

Date Published: 2015

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125841

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: NetLogo

Model Documentation: ODD Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125841.s002

Abstract

Developing population dynamics models for zebrafish is crucial in order to extrapolate from toxicity data measured at the organism level to biological levels relevant to support and enhance ecological risk assessment. To achieve this, a dynamic energy budget for individual zebrafish (DEB model) was coupled to an individual based model of zebrafish population dynamics (IBM model). Next, we fitted the DEB model to new experimental data on zebrafish growth and reproduction thus improving existing models. We further analysed the DEB-model and DEB-IBM using a sensitivity analysis. Finally, the predictions of the DEB-IBM were compared to existing observations on natural zebrafish populations and the predicted population dynamics are realistic. While our zebrafish DEB-IBM model can still be improved by acquiring new experimental data on the most uncertain processes (e.g. survival or feeding), it can already serve to predict the impact of compounds at the population level.

Tags

growth Sex-ratio Temperature Fish Risk-assessment Danio-rerio Larval zebrafish Female zebrafish Wild zebrafish Estrogen