Lecturer: Bas Kooijman
Affiliation: Dept Theoretical Biology, VU University Amsterdam
Workshop: DEB symposium 2017
Site: Tromso
Date: 2017/06/02
Title: Biodiversity in the context of DEB theory.

Summary:

One of the key questions that grabbed me during the development of DEB theory was: 
How can a simple theory on the metabolism of organisms be that accurate despite the huge biodiversity that exists? 
In the context of DEB theory it is natural to look for answers in a table of parameters versus species. 
Ecophysiological literature is full of reports on life history strategies and on how properties depend on body size. 
Think of r-and-K strategies, altricial-precocial spectra, Kleiber's law, generalist versus specialist, evolution of parental care. 
We found several more, such as supply-demand spectra, metabolic acceleration, waste-to-hurry. 
My more detailed questions were: 
can we find these patterns back in the position of species in the parameter space and can we understand why this diversity could have been unfolded during evolution? 
Each strategy seems to have its own advantage and disadvantage. 
My lecture will try to share some of many wanderings and place it in the context of evolution of homeostasis and syntrophic interaction.