A dynamic energy budget model of Fenneropenaeus chinensis with applications for aquaculture and stock enhancement

Dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory provides a framework for quantifying metabolic processes and biological rates. DEB models have been widely applied to aquaculture species, but this type of model has great potential for application to fisheries for stock assessment and enhancement. The shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis, widely distributed along the coast of China and Korea, is the most important fisheries and aquaculture species in China. With the AmP method, DEB parameters were estimated for the population along the coast of China. The parameter estimation achieved an overall goodness of fit with MRE of 0.131 and SMSE of 0.178. In comparison with similar species, the values of a few main parameters are relatively high including reserve capacity (E_m), somatic maintenance (ṗ_M) and allocation fraction to growth and somatic maintenance (κ). This may reflect an adaptation to variation of environmental conditions. The model can predict the physiological behaviours including respiration, ammonia excretion and feeding rates reasonably well. It shows overall capability to predict the growth and reproduction with acceptable confidence in three main geographic regions. There are clear differences between the female and male with much faster growth rate of the former. Validations of the model have shown that it can adequately predict growth of the shrimp in both its natural distribution waters and land-based culture systems. This study provides important information for further development of modeling tools which can contribute to estimating the carrying capacity for stock enhancement and optimizing production from integrated multi-trophic aquaculture.