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The abundance and grazing effect of small ( Synechococcus ) were assessed during April 2016 at four stations along a longitudinal transect in the ultra-oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean Sea and at two selected depths with varying nutrient and light conditions; the 5 m depth representing surface water and the 75 m depth representing the deeper euphotic layer, targeting the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum (DCM) zone at the sampling stations. Cells of size Synechococcus consumption, respectively. On the other hand, PNF were the dominant grazers of prokaryotic picoplankton at 75 m accounting for 72–80% of the HB consumption and 60–74% of the Synechococcus consumption. HNF and PNF together consumed 4.4 ± 3.2% d −1 (mean ± sd) of the HB standing stock and 19.7 ± 16% d −1 (mean ± sd) of the Synechococcus standing stock. Moreover, a negative relationship between phosphate concentration and ingestion rates of PNF on prokaryotic picoplankton was observed. Pigment analysis showed that the major PNF groups were Prymnesiophytes followed by Pelagophytes/Chrysophytes. Prymnesiophytes was the group mostly associated with mixotrophy. Overall, our results pinpoint the role of small nanoflagellates as prokaryotic picoplankton consumers and the importance of mixotrophy as a trophic mode for PNF in the ultra-oligotrophic E. Mediterranean Sea.

Finfish aquaculture in the Mediterranean Sea faces increasing challenges due to climate change while potential adaptation requires a robust assessment of the arising threats and opportunities. This paper presents an approach developed to investigate effects of climate drivers on Greek aquaculture, a representative Mediterranean country with a leading role in the sector. Using a farm level approach, Dynamic Energy Budget models for European seabass and meagre were developed and environmental forcing was used to simulate changes in production and farm profitability under IPCC scenarios RCP45 and RCP85. The effects of temperature and extreme weather events at the individual and farm level were considered along with that of husbandry parameters such as stocking timing, market size, and farm location (inshore, offshore) for nine regions. The simulations suggest that at the individual level fish may benefit from warmer temperatures in the future in terms of growth, thus reaching commercial sizes faster, while the husbandry parameters may have as large an effect on growth as the projected shifts in climatic cues. However, this benefit will be largely offset by the adverse effects of extreme weather events at the population level. Such events will be more frequent in the future and, depending on the intensity one assigns to them, they could cause losses in biomass and farm profits that range from mild to detrimental for the industry. Overall, these results provide quantification of some of the potential threats for an important aquaculture sector while suggesting possibilities to benefit from emerging opportunities. Therefore, they could contribute to improving the sector’s readiness for tackling important challenges in the future.

The Add-my-Pet (AmP) collection of data on energetics and Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) parameters currently contains 200 out of over 1100 extant species of chondrichthyans. This milestone in the compilation of data for this group led us to investigate: (1) do the characteristics that we reported in 2014 for 20 chondrichthyan species, relative to other fish, still hold (2) are novel patterns in properties revealed given the additional data and (3) do the four chondrichthyan subgroups (galean, squaleans, rays and chimaeras) differ in properties? We argue that a better understanding of these properties is key to sustainable management of the rapidly dwindling populations worldwide. Most of the inter-specific scatter in ultimate reproduction rate as function of ultimate body weight stems from differences in the mass of neonates as fraction of that of the mother, which is very high in chondrichthyans. The ultimate neonate mass production is found to be proportional to the ultimate respiration rate, with proportionality factor of 10 g/mol. The lifespan is found to be inversely proportional to weight-specific respiration, with a proportionality factor of 0.1 mol/g. The ultimate weight equals the life-time cumulated neonate mass production. These relationships also apply, with more scatter, to all 3000 animal species in the AmP collection. Sharks and rays were found to be more demand-species, contrary to ray-finned fish and chimaeras, which are supply species. Chimaeras also have that smallest weight at birth and precociality coefficient, compared to sharks and rays. Galeans grow much slower than squaleans and rays, but the chimaeras grow even slower. The lifespan equals 25 times the incubation time for chondrichthyans, but they are rather unique in this respect. Last but not least, we discuss the odd implications of recently published data on the energetics of the Greenland shark.

WOS:000453497600006; Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory constitutes a coherent set of universal biological processes that have been used as building blocks for modeling biological systems over the last 40 years in many applied disciplines. In the context of extracting parameters for DEB models from data, we discuss the methodology of fitting multiple models, which share parameters, to multiple data sets in a single parameter estimation. This problem is not specific to DEB models, and is (or should be) really general in biology. We discovered that a lot of estimation problems that we suffered from in the past originated from the use of a loss function that was not symmetric in the role of data and predictions. We here propose two much better symmetric candidates, that proved to work well in practice. We illustrate estimation problems and their solutions with a Monte-Carlo case study for increasing amount of scatter, which decreased the amount of information in the data about one or more parameter values. We here validate the method using a set of models with known parameters and different scatter structures. We compare the loss functions on the basis of convergence, point and interval estimates. We also discuss the use of pseudo-data, i.e. realistic values for parameters that we treat as data from which predictions can differ. These pseudo-data are used to avoid that a good fit results in parameter values that make no biological sense. We discuss our new method for estimating confidence intervals and present a list of concrete recommendations for parameter estimation. We conclude that the proposed method performs very well in recovering parameter values of a set of models, applied to a set of data. This is consistent with our large-scale applications in practice.

Body size is not an independent variable, but an emergent property: the result of a number of inter-linked eco-physiological processes, like most other quantities that we can measure on organisms. Organisms do not have a particular body size. They are born small and grow to larger sizes during their life trajectory, while changing properties during the growth process in interaction with the environment. The use of maximum body mass of a species as an independent variable when analyzing some other trait, bypasses the important question: What factors control maximum body mass and how do these factors affect the trait of interest? We argue that the old, famous question of why weight-specific respiration decreases for increasing maximum body mass of species was difficult to explain because ecological literature typically treats body size as an independent variable. We demonstrate that Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory could explain this phenomenon by treating body size as an emergent property. The question of why specific respiration decreases with increasing body size then translates to the question of why specific assimilation and/or specific maintenance would vary among species. We discuss the four parameters that control maximum body weight in the DEB theory and study how they co-vary. One of these parameters, the allocation fraction to soma, turned out to follow a beta distribution in the Add-my-Pet collection, with perplexing accuracy. We found the explanation after discovering that the supply stress, i.e. maturity maintenance times squared somatic maintenance divided by cubed assimilation, also followed a (scaled) beta distribution. The allocation fraction can be written as the ratio of somatic maintenance and assimilation for fully-grown individuals and we found that these rates turn out to follow Weibull distributions. Beta-distributions are known to result from appropriate ratios of gamma-distributed variables and we demonstrate that this also applies, to a very good approximation, for ratios of Weibull-distributed variables. We noticed similarities between Weibull distributions and allometric functions and suggest that they fit data well because many factors contribute to the underlying processes. This explains why the allocation fraction, the supply stress and some other ratios of fluxes follow beta distributions. We support our findings with empirical data.

Reserve capacity quantifies the ability of an animal to smooth out fluctuations in food availability. It is defined as the maximum reserve density, and can be quantified through the application of the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory. In this study, we analyze inter-specific patterns in DEB parameters of 1041 animal species, focusing on those that control reserve capacity (maximum specific assimilation and energy conductance) and maintenance. The co-variation rules of DEB theory expect that specific somatic maintenance and energy conductance are independent of maximum structural length, with the implication that reserve capacity is proportional to maximum structural length among species and independent of somatic maintenance. We found however that the reserve density increases with somatic maintenance among all large animal taxa in the collection: invertebrates, fish and amphibians, sauropsids and mammals. The waste-to-hurry phenomenon implies that small-bodied species frequently have both a higher specific maintenance and higher specific assimilation (with respect to larger species) allowing them to boost growth and reproduction. If waste-to-hurry strategists would increase both parameters in proportion, maximum structural length would not be affected, reserve capacity would become proportional to somatic maintenance and its relationship with maximum structural length would depend on quantitative details. We did find a positive relationship between reserve capacity and specific somatic maintenance, but the increase (as an average over all taxa) is less than proportional. The reason is that specific assimilation is less than proportional to specific somatic maintenance, the scaling parameter roughly being 0.8, while energy conductance hardly depends on somatic maintenance. The implication is that maximum assimilation is proportional to structural length to the power − 0.7, which explains why the waste-to-hurry strategy is not a viable route for big-bodied species: they would need more assimilates than small-bodied ones, not less. We discuss applications of these findings in the context of parameter estimation. As a side-result we also found that birds have a higher specific somatic maintenance and also a higher (mean) energy conductance, compared to other sauropsids at the same body temperature. The first is to be expected because they are demand species, the latter might be an adaptation to flight: reserve density increases for decreasing energy conductance, while it contributes to weight.

The effects of water temperature (15, 20 and 25 °C) on the stress response of European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, were studied. Blood and water samples were collected prior and at 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 8 h post-stress for hormonal and biochemical analysis. Water temperature affected the resting concentrations of all stress indicators examined, as well as their response after stress, apart from lactate which response was unaffected by temperature. Cortisol showed the response with the highest outcome at 15 °C, and the fastest at 25 °C. Cortisol release rate in the water was also faster and of higher magnitude at higher temperatures. Glucose had both the fastest and higher in magnitude response at 25 °C, while lactate responded similarly in all temperatures tested. Finally, osmolality changed only at the highest temperature. These results suggest that temperature should be taken into consideration when evaluating the resting levels of stress indicators of European sea bass in laboratory, rearing and field conditions. Additionally, the present results show that temperature affects the stress response, suggesting that fish can differ in their susceptibility to stress depending on the acclimatization temperature. Moreover, it was shown that cortisol release rate in the water, a non-invasive stress indicator, can depict the effects of temperature on cortisol stress response.

A working group at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) explored the feasibility of integrating 2 complementary approaches relevant to ecological risk assessment. Adverse outcome pathway (AOP) models provide "bottom-up" mechanisms to predict specific toxicological effects that could affect an individual's ability to grow, reproduce, and/or survive from a molecular initiating event. Dynamic energy budget (DEB) models offer a "top-down" approach that reverse engineers stressor effects on growth, reproduction, and/or survival into modular characterizations related to the acquisition and processing of energy resources. Thus, AOP models quantify linkages between measurable molecular, cellular, or organ-level events, but they do not offer an explicit route to integratively characterize stressor effects at higher levels of organization. While DEB models provide the inherent basis to link effects on individuals to those at the population and ecosystem levels, their use of abstract variables obscures mechanistic connections to suborganismal biology. To take advantage of both approaches, we developed a conceptual model to link DEB and AOP models by interpreting AOP key events as measures of damage-inducing processes affecting DEB variables and rates. We report on the type and structure of data that are generated for AOP models that may also be useful for DEB models. We also report on case studies under development that merge information collected for AOPs with DEB models and highlight some of the challenges. Finally, we discuss how the linkage of these 2 approaches can improve ecological risk assessment, with possibilities for progress in predicting population responses to toxicant exposures within realistic environments. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:615-624. © 2018 SETAC.

Mixotrophic nanoflagellates (MNF) play a key role in the carbon flux within aquatic ecosystems. They contribute significantly to primary production while, at the same time, they are important consumers of bacteria. MNF comprise a diverse assemblage with a whole range of photosynthetic and feeding potential and with various metabolic responses to environmental drivers, such as light, nutrients and prey availability. However, in most cases MNF are modelled as a single functional group with no reference to the distinct nutritional strategies and constraints of the different types of MNF. Here we develop a mathematical framework for the distinct functional responses of four types of MNF. Our approach is based on the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory and the concept of Synthesing Unit (SU), which is used to merge phototrophic and phagotrophic nutrition into mixotrophic growth. The resulting models describe explicitly the functional diversity of the MNF group taking into account the dynamic interaction of phototrophy and phagotrophy within the four types of MNF. Our results are in agreement with theoretical expectations and a wide range of experimental observations for the different types of MNF. Our simulations suggest that the growth dynamics of the four types of MNF are affected differently by the availability of resources. Moreover, using our models to compare the rates of organic carbon production and prey consumption by the various MNF types, we show that their net ecosystem role, as producers or consumers, depends on the mixotrophic strategy and it can vary as a function of the prevailing environmental conditions. Overall, our study highlights the importance of mechanistically modelling the distinct metabolic responses of the different types of MNF to environmental drivers in order to better understand their role in the carbon cycle in anticipation of global environmental changes.

A working group at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) explored the feasibility of integrating 2 complementary approaches relevant to ecological risk assessment. Adverse outcome pathway (AOP) models provide "bottom-up" mechanisms to predict specific toxicological effects that could affect an individual's ability to grow, reproduce, and/or survive from a molecular initiating event. Dynamic energy budget (DEB) models offer a "top-down" approach that reverse engineers stressor effects on growth, reproduction, and/or survival into modular characterizations related to the acquisition and processing of energy resources. Thus, AOP models quantify linkages between measurable molecular, cellular, or organ-level events, but they do not offer an explicit route to integratively characterize stressor effects at higher levels of organization. While DEB models provide the inherent basis to link effects on individuals to those at the population and ecosystem levels, their use of abstract variables obscures mechanistic connections to suborganismal biology. To take advantage of both approaches, we developed a conceptual model to link DEB and AOP models by interpreting AOP key events as measures of damage-inducing processes affecting DEB variables and rates. We report on the type and structure of data that are generated for AOP models that may also be useful for DEB models. We also report on case studies under development that merge information collected for AOPs with DEB models and highlight some of the challenges. Finally, we discuss how the linkage of these 2 approaches can improve ecological risk assessment, with possibilities for progress in predicting population responses to toxicant exposures within realistic environments. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:615-624. © 2018 SETAC.

The standard Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) model assumes that a fraction κ of mobilised reserve is allocated to somatic maintenance plus growth, while the rest is allocated to maturity maintenance plus maturation (in embryos and juveniles) or reproduction (in adults). All DEB parameters have been estimated for 276 animal species from most large phyla and all chordate classes. The goodness of fit is generally excellent. We compared the estimated values of κ with those that would maximise reproduction in fully grown adults with abundant food. Only 13% of these species show a reproduction rate close to the maximum possible (assuming that κ can be controlled), another 4% have κ lower than the optimal value, and 83% have κ higher than the optimal value. Strong empirical support hence exists for the conclusion that reproduction is generally not maximised. We also compared the parameters of the wild chicken with those of races selected for meat and egg production and found that the latter indeed maximise reproduction in terms of κ, while surface-specific assimilation was not affected by selection. We suggest that small values of κ relate to the down-regulation of maximum body size, and large values to the down-regulation of reproduction. We briefly discuss the ecological context for these findings.

International audience; The standard Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) model assumes that food is converted to reserve and a fraction kappa of mobilised reserve of an individual is allocated to somatic maintenance plus growth, while the rest is allocated to maturity maintenance plus maturation (in embryos and juveniles) or reproduction (in adults). The add\ₘy\ₚet collection of over 300 animal species from most larger phyla, and all chordate classes, shows that this model fits energy data very well. Nine parameters determine nine data points at abundant food: dry/wet weight ratio, age at birth, puberty, death, weight at birth, metamorphosis, puberty, ultimate weight and ultimate reproduction rate. We demonstrate that, given a few other parameters, these nine data points also determine the nine parameters uniquely that are independent of food availability: maturity at birth, metamorphosis and puberty, specific assimilation, somatic maintenance and costs for structure, allocation fraction of mobilised reserve to soma, energy conductance, and ageing acceleration. We provide an efficient algorithm for mapping between data and parameter space in both directions and found expressions for the boundaries of the parameter and data spaces. One of them quantifies the position of species in the supply-demand spectrum, which reflects the internalisation of energetic control. We link eco-physiological properties of species to their position in this spectrum and discuss it in the context of homeostasis. Invertebrates and ray-finned fish turn out to be close to the supply end of the spectrum, while other vertebrates, including cartilaginous fish, have stronger demand tendencies. We explain why birds and mammals up-regulate metabolism during reproduction. We study some properties of the bijection using elasticity coefficients. The properties have applications in parameter estimation and in the analysis of evolutionary constraints on parameter values; the relationship between DEB parameters and data has similarities to that between genotype and phenotype. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The recent finding that the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus, reaches a life-span of almost 4 centuries and attains sexual maturity around 1.5 centuries, made us wonder what metabolic differences were responsible for these seemingly extreme values, compared to the related and better known spurdog Squalus acanthias. We studied this in the context of the dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory for metabolic organisation, which was applied to some 700 animal species from all large phyla and all chordate orders. The referenced data, estimated parameters and implied properties for all these species are published in the online Add-my-Pet collection, which provides a frame of reference for metabolic and life history properties. Given the few known data on S. microcephalus, we were able to estimate ageing parameters and gestation time, by application of the standard DEB model. We inferred that a recently estimated life-span of 392 years is probably too short for life at 2 °C, rather than too long. The ageing acceleration is only slightly smaller than that of the spurdog, and the gestation time is very likely between 8 and 18 years with the implication of around 200–700 pups per life-time. The low body temperature and high maximum reserve density of S. microcephalus could be identified as the causes of its long life-span. We see the latter cause as an adaptation to a life in the deep sea sporadically preying on big carcasses, where it is necessary to survive long spells of starvation. This application of the standard DEB model shows that it can be applied in situations where few data are available and how implied properties (gestation) can be used to constrain parameter values. The methods used here could be further developed by fisheries biologists working with deep sea species for which very little is known.

The accurate representation of species distribution derived from sampled data is essential for management purposes and to underpin population modelling. Additionally, the prediction of species distribution for an expanded area, beyond the sampling area can reduce sampling costs. Here, several well-established and recently developed habitat modelling techniques are investigated in order to identify the most suitable approach to use with presence–absence acoustic data. The fitting efficiency of the modelling techniques are initially tested on the training dataset while their predictive capacity is evaluated using a verification set. For the comparison among models, Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC), Kappa statistics, correlation and confusion matrices are used. Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) and Associative Neural Networks (ASNN), which are both within the machine learning category, outperformed the other modelling approaches tested.

Aim To propose a new approach to the small island effect (SIE) and a simple mathematical procedure for the estimation of its upper limit. The main feature of the SIE is that below an upper size threshold an increase of species number with increase of area in small islands is not observed. Location Species richness patterns from different taxa and insular systems are analysed. Methods Sixteen different data sets from 12 studies are analysed. Path analysis was used for the estimation of the upper limit of the SIE. We studied each data set in order to detect whether there was a certain island size under which the direct effects of area were eliminated. This detection was carried out through the sequential exclusion of islands from the largest to the smallest. For the cases where an SIE was detected, a log-log plot of species number against area is presented. The relationships between habitat diversity, species number and area are studied within the limits of the SIE. In previous studies only area was used for the detection of the SIE, whereas we also encompass habitat diversity, a parameter with well documented influence on species richness, especially at small scales. Results An SIE was detected in six out of the 16 studied cases. The upper limit of the SIE varies, depending on the characteristics of the taxon and the archipelago under study. In general, the values of the upper limit of the SIE calculated according to the approach undertaken in our study differ from the values calculated in previous studies. Main conclusions Although the classical species–area models have been used to estimate the upper limit of the SIE, we propose that the detection of this phenomenon should be undertaken independently from the species–area relationship, so that the net effects of area are calculated excluding the surrogate action of area on other variables, such as environmental heterogeneity. The SIE appears when and where area ceases to influence species richness directly. There are two distinct SIE patterns: (1) the classical SIE where both the direct and indirect effects of area are eliminated and (2) the cryptic SIE where area affects species richness indirectly. Our approach offers the opportunity of studying the different factors influencing biodiversity on small scales more accurately. The SIE cannot be considered a general pattern with fixed behaviour that can be described by the same model for different island groups and taxa. The SIE should be recognized as a genuine but idiosyncratic phenomenon.

Aim To test the performance of the choros model in an archipelago using two measures of environmental heterogeneity. The choros model is a simple, easy-to-use mathematical relationship which approaches species richness as a combined function of area and environmental heterogeneity. Location The archipelago of Skyros in the central Aegean Sea (Greece). Methods We surveyed land snails on 12 islands of the archipelago. We informed the choros model with habitat data based on natural history information from the land snail species assemblage. We contrast this with habitat information taken from traditional vegetation classification to study the behaviour of choros with different measures of environmental heterogeneity. R2 values and Akaike's information criterion (AIC) were used to compare the choros model and the Arrhenius species–area model. Path analysis was used to evaluate the variance in species richness explained by area and habitat diversity. Results Forty-two land snail species were recorded, living in 33 different habitat types. The choros model with habitat types had more explanatory power than the classic species–area model and the choros model using vegetation types. This was true for all islands of the archipelago, as well as for the small islands alone. Combined effects of area and habitat diversity primarily explain species richness in the archipelago, but there is a decline when only small islands are considered. The effects of area are very low both for all the islands of the archipelago, and for the small islands alone. The variance explained by habitat diversity is low for the island group as a whole, but significantly increases for the small islands. Main conclusions The choros model is effective in describing species-richness patterns of land snails in the Skyros Archipelago, incorporating ecologically relevant information on habitat occupancy and area. The choros model is more effective in explaining richness patterns on small islands. When using traditional vegetation types, the choros model performs worse than the classic species–area relationship, indicating that use of proxies for habitat diversity may be problematic. The slopes for choros and Arrhenius models both assert that, for land snails, the Skyros Archipelago is a portion of a larger biogeographical province. The choros model, informed by ecologically relevant habitat measures, in conjunction with path analysis points to the importance of habitat diversity in island species richness.

An organism's feeding rate is governed by constraints imposed by processes associated with consumption. We present a general feeding model that incorporates encounter, successful pursuit, handling, and digestion in one functional representation where we treat digestion as a parallel process. The model produces type II functional response curves. However, the asymptotic maximum feeding rate is determined by the sum of the time spent for handling and digesting a prey minus the gain in time, since the digestion process is parallel to the handling process. We use our model in combination with existing models of encounter, successful pursuit, and digestion to evaluate the feeding rate of fish larvae. We test the model against experimental data for sea bream (Sparus aurata) larvae and find a very close quantitative correspondence between predictions and experiments. Sensitivity analysis shows that for the early developmental stages, the model is sensitive to parameters related to the visual and locomotion abilities of larvae to detect and capture the prey. Later, when they establish these abilities, the choice of accepting or not the prey becomes more important.

Aim To propose a model (the choros model) for species diversity, which embodies number of species, area and habitat diversity and mathematically unifies area per se and habitat hypotheses. Location Species richness patterns from a broad scale of insular biotas, both from island and mainland ecosystems are analysed. Methods Twenty-two different data sets from seventeen studies were examined in this work. The r2 values and the Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) were used in order to compare the quality of fit of the choros model with the Arrhenius species–area model. The classic method of log-log transformation was applied. Results In twenty of the twenty-two cases studied, the proposed model gave a better fit than the classic species–area model. The values of z parameter derived from choros model are generally lower than those derived from the classic species–area equation. Main conclusions The choros model can express the effects of area and habitat diversity on species richness, unifying area per se and the habitat hypothesis, which as many authors have noticed are not mutually exclusive but mutually supplementary. The use of habitat diversity depends on the specific determination of the ‘habitat’ term, which has to be defined based on the natural history of the taxon studied. Although the values of the z parameter are reduced, they maintain their biological significance as described by many authors in the last decades. The proposed model can also be considered as a stepping-stone in our understanding of the small island effect.

We formulate a Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) model for the growth and reproduction of individual organisms based on partitioning of net production (i.e. energy acquisition rate minus maintenance rate) between growth and energy reserves. Reproduction uses energy from reserves. The model describes both feeding and non-feeding stages, and hence is applicable to embryos (which neither feed nor reproduce), juveniles (which feed but do not reproduce), and adults (which commonly both feed and reproduce). Embryonic growth can have two forms depending on the assumptions for acquisition of energy from yolk. By default, when the energy acquisition rate exceeds the maintenance rate, a fixed proportion of the resulting net production is spent on growth (increase in structural biomass), and the remaining portion is channelled to the reserves. Feeding organisms, however, modulate their allocation of net production energy in response to their total energy content (energy in the reserves plus energy bounded to structural biomass). In variable food environment an organism alternates between periods of growth, no-growth, and balanced-growth. In the latter case the organism adopts an allocation strategy that keeps its total energy constant. Under constant environmental conditions. the growth of a juvenile is always of von Bertalanffy type. Depending on the values of model parameters there are two long-time possibilities for adults: (a) von Bertalanffy growth accompanied by reproduction at a rate that approaches zero as the organism approaches asymptotic size, or (b) abrupt cessation of growth at some finite time, following which, the rate of reproduction is constant. We illustrate the model's applicability in life history theory by studying the optimum values of the energy allocation parameters for constant environment and for each of the dynamic regimes described above.

We establish the existence of traveling wave solutions for a nonlinear partial differential equation that models a logistically growing population whose movement is governed by an advective process. Conditions are presented for which traveling wave solutions exist and for which they are stable to small semi-finite domain perturbations. The wave is of mathematical interest because its behavior is determined by a singular differential equation and those with small speed of propagation steepen into a shock-like solutions. Finally, we indicate that the smoothing presence of diffusion allows wave persistence when an advective slow moving wave may collapse.

The framework provided by the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory allows the quantification of metabolic processes and the associated biological rates that are of interest for aquaculture, such as growth and feeding. The DEB parameters were estimated for farmed European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), a species of major importance for the Mediterranean aquaculture, using zero- and uni-variate literature data and achieving an overall good fit. The obtained parameter set was used to validate the model on sites representatively covering the geographic distribution of the aquaculture activity in Greece via comparison of model predictions to observations. Inter-individual variability of farmed fish was introduced through: 1) an individual initial weight and 2) a factor that acts as an individual-specific multiplier for some of the model parameters and produces scatter in maximum size, and age and size at puberty. Growth of E. sea bass was adequately predicted by the model while feeding tended to be underestimated, particularly during the period following the summer months when warmer temperatures promote high growth rates. The results suggest robustness of the model since it is able to simulate growth and food intake in several independent aquaculture production units, using a common parameter set. The accuracy of growth predictions supports the applicability of the model in variable environmental conditions in the context of climate change. Reconstruction of the feeding history from growth data revealed variations in the scaled functional response (f), i.e., the feeding rate as fraction of maximum possible one of an individual of a given size, throughout the production cycle. However, model simulations with constant f result in reasonably good predictions for growth and feeding in variable environmental conditions. Tendency of the model to underestimate the feeding process revealed both model weaknesses associated with higher temperatures as well as irregularities in the feeding protocols applied at the farm level. Our work demonstrates the capacity and potential of DEB theory for further development of tools that contribute to the assessment and improvement of feeding practices in aquaculture.

We have developed a mathematical model based on the underlying mechanisms concerning the responses of the photosynthetic apparatus of a microalga cell which grows under constant incident light intensity and ambient CO 2 concentration. Photosynthesis involves light and carbon-fixation reactions which are mutually dependent and affect each other, but existing models for photosynthesis don't account for both reactions at once. Our modeling approach allows us to derive distinct equations for the rates of oxygen production, NADPH production, carbon dioxide fixation, carbohydrate production, and rejected energy, which are generally different. The production rates of the photosynthesis products are hyperbolic functions of light and CO 2 concentration. The model predicts that in the absence of photoinhibition, CO 2 -inhibition, photorespiration, and chlororespiration, a cell acclimated to high light and/or CO 2 concentration has higher photosynthetic capacity and lower photosynthetic efficiency than does a cell acclimated to low conditions. This results in crossing between the two curves which represent the oxygen production rates and carbon fixation rates in low and high conditions. Finally, in the absence of photoinhibition and CO 2 -inhibition, the model predicts the carbohydrate production rate in terms of both light intensity and CO 2 concentration.