Event: Ecological Seminar, organised by Juliane Filser
Location: University of Bremen, Germany
Date: 30 Oct 2019, 16:15-17:00
Lecturer: Bas Kooijman (emeritus); bas.kooijman@vu.nl
Affiliation: Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam
Title: Analysis of Dynamic Energy Budget traits among animals

Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory is meant to quantify the processes of substrate uptake and use by organisms during their full life cycle in dynamic environments 
(in terms of substrate availability and temperature) of all species on earth (micro-organisms, plants, animals).
It is based on first principles, rather than being descriptive, and all parameters have a clear physical/chemical interpretation, with simple dimensions, 
each relating to a single underlying process.
Partly meant to test the generality of DEB theory for animals, and to assist users of this theory in estimating parameters, 
we developed code and started to build a database of data, parameters and implied traits for animals species from all larger phyla and all chordate orders, 
presently amounting to over 2000 species.
Unlike DEB theory in general, the Add-my-Pet database is confined to animals because of their metabolic simplicity originating from feeding on other organisms.
This biochemically complex substrate couples the various required metabolic building blocks and energy.
Knowlegde of the parameters of all these species not only helps in estimating parameters for new species, but we can now also study patterns in the 
co-variation of parameter values among species.

In my lecture I will briefly explain data-requirements and the process of parameter estimation, and discuss some of the patterns that we found:
a priory predictable patterns based on plain physical grounds, and adaptive patterns, such as metabolic acceleration, `waste-to-hurry', supply-demand and altricial-precocial spectra.
These patterns can be explained in the context of DEB theory, such as why birds evolved from precocial to altricial development, while  mammals took just the opposite direction.

References:

 Add-my-pet database:
 https://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/deb/deblab/add_my_pet/



Legend to the figure:

This figure shows how metabolic acceleration is distributed in animal kingdom, and more in particular in ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii), strongly linking to larval forms. The font-colours relate to the acceleration factor, which is the ratio of length at the end and the start of acceleration; the value 1 (in black) means no acceleration. Metabolism of neonates of accelerating species start slowly and later catching up with non-accelerating species. Notice that e.g. amphibia have larval forms, but do not accelerate. See Kooijman, S. A. L. M. (2014). Metabolic acceleration in animal ontogeny: An evolutionary perspective. Journal of Sea Research, 94, 128--137.