Masters Theses
Date of Award
12-1989
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Major
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Major Professor
Donald L. DeAngelis
Committee Members
Marshall Adams, Louis J. Gross
Abstract
Individual-based population models provide a tool for studying population dynamics by integrating the actions of many mechanistically modeled individuals. Such an individual-based population model was developed for the largemouth bass. The model is capable of following several thousand individuals through their first year of life. Algorithms for foraging and bioenergetics track the daily intake and allocation of energy by each fish. Sources of mortality include pre-feeding mortality, starvation, and additional death rates that may be size-dependent or size independant. The important driving variables, water temperature and the availability of prey, are modeled explicitly. The model is density dependent through the exploitative competition of the bass for prey. Stochastic elements exist in the submodels for temperature, foraging, and survival. The model outputs both individual information and aggregate (population) statistics.
Three model applications are presented: 1. Model simulations are compared to the results of a laboratory experiment on growth and survival of first-feeding largemouth bass at varying feeding standards. 2. The implications of selecting prey according to each of two "rules" is evaluated. 3. The importance of the timing of reproduction both in the absence and presence of intra and inter-cohort competition is examined. Simulation results emphasize the importance of the density-dependent relationship between growth and survival; under a given prey regime, growth and survival vary inversely to produce a fairly constant total biomass of fish after a given time. Behavioral "strategies" were shown to differ in value depending on whether results were evaluated from the point of view of an individual or the population.
Recommended Citation
Trebitz, Anett S., "Development and application of an individual-based population model for first-year largemouth bass. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1989.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/13101
