engleski

Dynamic Energy Budget theory in (eco)toxicological research

The ability to understand and generalise effects of exposure from experiments is essential for predicting toxic effects in untested conditions and/or natural environment s. Chemical effects initiate at molecular-level responses that ultimately – through effects on individual growth, reproduction and survival – have ecosystem-level effects. Transcending these scales of organisation requires modelling, in particular of individual- level effects because individuals are units of natural selection and fundamental elements of populations and ecosystems, allowing translation of effects to higher organisational levels. The Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory offers a general, comprehensive, tested framework for capturing toxic effects of exposure on individual physiological processes. A complete DEB ecotoxicological (DEBtox) model consists of three main modules: (i) the DEB model describing the acquisition and utilisation of energy as a function of environmental conditions, (ii) a toxicokinetic module describing the assimilation and distribution of the toxicant, and (iii) a toxicodynamic module describing the effects of the toxicant based on toxicokinetics. The simplest toxicokinetic model considers the organism as a single compartment, but much more elaborate schemes are possible. The toxicodynamic module applies a dose-dependent stress function to a metabolic flux by affecting one or more DEB parameters. As metabolic fluxes fully describe the ontology (and, therefore, the ecological role) of an individual, the resulting DEBtox fully captures the ecotoxic effects of exposure. Such a description is also general because DEB models have been created for more than 2200 species. We present the general concepts of the DEBtox and the underlying DEB theory, and give an overview of existing modelling toolboxes with examples.

DEBtox model ; individual ; metabolic parameters ; modelling toolboxes ; stress function

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