Energetics

Abstract

Bioenergetics is the process of energy use and deposition in animals Because a successful fish must consume sufficient energy to allow growth and reproduction, the use of energetic concepts and bioenergetic models has intensified recently in an effort to understand energy allocation and factors influencing this allocation in fish populations. However, fish bioenergetics is not a new field of study, as relationships between food consumption and growth of fish have been understood in aquaculture for centuries, and a published record began with Fan Li in 475 bc (Bardach et al., 1972). More recently, efforts by Brett and his colleagues delimited the major energetic concepts for sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, and ultimately produced an estimation of the lifetime energy budget for a sockeye salmon (Brett, 1980). From this basis in salmonid biology, the interest in fish energetics expanded to additional species and ecosystems.