Lecturer: Bas Kooijman
Affiliation: Dept Theoretical Biology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Ecological colloquium, Department of General and Theoretical Ecology, 
  University of Bremen, UFT
Date: 2007/12/13
Title: Population consequences of effects of toxicants on organisms in the
  context of Dynamic Energy Budget theory for metabolic organisation.

Abstract: The evaluation of consequences of changes in the
physiological performance of individual organisms for population and
ecosystem dynamics, for instance by effects of toxicants, requires an
explicit link between these two levels of organisation and a general
model for the ecophysiology of organisms. The link is provided by the
von Forster partial differential equations, or stochastic equivalents,
and the model is specified by the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory,
which is specifically developed for this purpose.

It turned out that the consequences of effects of toxicants for
population dynamics very much depend on the mode of action of the
chemical compound. If the compound increases (somatic) maintenance
costs, for instance, temporary food shortage will enhance the effects
considerably, for reasons that are well understood. If the compound
reduces reproductive output directly, however, food shortage will
hardly change the effect of the compound.

Recent progress has been made in the quantification of effects of
toxicants on organisms, including effects of mixtures of compounds and
of time-varying concentrations. I will briefly review this progress.

More information about research on DEB theory can be found at
  http://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/deb/

A general introductory paper to the DEB theory can be found at
  http://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/research/bib/Kooy2001.html