An individual-based model of zebrafish population dynamics accounting for energy dynamics

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 5; p. e0125841
• Main Authors: Beaudouin, Rémy, Goussen, Benoit, Piccini, Benjamin, Augustine, Starrlight, Devillers, James, Brion, François, Péry, Alexandre R R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 04.05.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Animal reproduction; Animals; Biology; Danio rerio; Data acquisition; Dynamics; Ecological risk assessment; Energy; Energy budget; Environmental aspects; Experimental data; Experiments; Females; Fish; Food; Laboratories; Life Sciences; Mathematical models; Merluccius merluccius; Models, Theoretical; Physiological aspects; Physiology; Population; Population biology; Population Dynamics; Predictions; Risk assessment; Sensitivity analysis; Studies; Temperature; Toxicity; Zebrafish; France
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125841

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.