INNOVATIVE APPROACHES WITH BIOENERGETICS MODELS - FUTURE APPLICATIONSTO FISH ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

Bioenergetics models define the mass balance relationship between the amount of food consumed by a fish and the fish's growth (somatic and r eproductive), the energy it expends, and the waste it produces. The fi eld of bioenergetics modeling has evolved rapidly from single-species studies of growth and food consumption to studies of food web dynamics , nutrient cycling, and predator-prey interactions at various spatial and temporal scales and to assessments of production potential at the ecosystem level. Much of this advance has been fostered by question-dr iven applications of bioenergetics models and by integration of bioene rgetics approaches with new technologies and ecological theory. The ac companying papers in this issue exemplify such diverse and innovative applications. In future applications of these models to fish ecology a nd management, more attention must be focused on differences between m odel formulations, on model parameterization, and on assumptions used in model simulations and applications.