FISH 615—Fish Bioenergetics

FITC Courses

All SFOS Courses

3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Robert Foy
Fishery Industrial Technology Center / School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
Where: Offered in Kodiak and via videoconference in Fairbanks and Juneau
When: Spring Semester 2005-2007; Tuesdays and Thursday 1500-1630h
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or instructor approval

Summary

This course is designed to teach the fundamentals of bioenergetics as they apply to sub-arctic fish but, will be basic and applicable to most biological systems. We will first explore the basic components of fish growth, energy requirements and energy storage. This will lead into an analysis of energy required to survive, feed and reproduce successfully. An important aspect of this course will be to take what we learn of individual bioenergetic requirements and integrate this with the students growing understanding in the context of environmental condition. This will effectively serve to develop an understanding of ecosystem level trophodynamics and their role in individual as well as population success. Finally we will introduce the use of biomass and energy based models to quantify fish growth, consumption rates, biomass removals and assimilation efficiencies. A large part of the final portion of the semester will be dedicated to developing bioenergetic models.

This is the second offering of this course, which will be equally divided into lecture and discussion meetings. Both assigned literature and text readings will be provided through the Blackboard interface. Lecturing will be used to organize and stimulate the discussions. Grading will be based on multiple summary assignments and a short presentation during the semester designed to facilitate discussion (15% of grade), a larger formal presentation completed at the end of the course (70% of total grade), and on discussion participation (15% of grade). The larger formal presentation will account for 70% of the total grade and will be based on presentation (visual aids, timeliness, power point slides), content (thorough literature review), and on relevance (course topics must be incorporated into the presentation). Discussion participation will include efforts to participate during class lectures and through the Blackboard interaction. Only one unexcused absence from class will be accepted without affecting the discussion portion of the grade. Each class missed subsequent will result in a 1 letter grade drop in the discussion grade.

Expectations

Students will be expected to attend all classes. A grade will be based on active participation, completion of assigned work, and on the presentations. Individual circumstances will be considered when appropriate and a suitable replacement for the class discussion will be made. Each student will be responsible for reading the assigned literature and being prepared prior to class for discussion. Each student will also have two presentations during the semester. Topics will preferably be work the student is involved with and be applied to the bioenergetic concepts discussed in this course. The final presentation will be based on the results of a modeling exercise.

Course Outline

Introduction
Basic Thermodynamics

Energy currency
Growth
Energy requirements
Energy storage

Bioenergetic Processes

Consumption
Assimilation
Excretion
Respiration
Maintenance
Reproduction

Behavior

Feeding
Anti-predation (avoidance)
Reproductive

Environmental Effects

Temperature
Fronts
Biological factors

Models

Bioenergetic

Individual
Population
Ecosystem

Biomass