Reconstructing individual food and growth histories from biogenic carbonates

Type Article
Date 2012
Language English
Author(s) Pecquerie Laure1, 2, Fablet Ronan3, 4, de Pontual HeleneORCID5, Bonhommeau SylvainORCID6, Alunno-Bruscia MarianneORCID7, Petitgas Pierre8, Kooijman Sebastiaan A. L. M.9
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Dept Ecol Evolut & Marine Biol, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA.
2 : IRD, Ctr Rech Halieut Mediterraneenne & Trop, UMR EME 212, F-34203 Sete, France.
3 : Telecom Bretagne, UMR CNRS Lab STICC 3192, F-29230 Brest, France.
4 : Univ Europeenne Bretagne, F-35000 Rennes, France.
5 : IFREMER, Dept Sci & Technol Halieut, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
6 : IFREMER, UMR EME 212, Ctr Rech Halieut Mediterraneenne & Trop, F-34203 Sete, France.
7 : IFREMER, Dept Physiol Organismes Marins, F-29840 Argenton Landunvez, France.
8 : IFREMER, Dept Ecol & Modeles Halieut, F-44300 Nantes, France.
9 : Vrije Univ Amsterdam, Dept Theoret Biol, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Source Marine Ecology-progress Series (0171-8630) (Inter-research), 2012 , Vol. 447 , P. 151-164
DOI 10.3354/meps09492
WOS© Times Cited 33
Note UE projects FISBOAT and RECLAIM (FP6 contracts n°502572 and 44133)
Keyword(s) Otolith, Calcification, Metabolism, Bioenergetic model, Food reconstruction, Dynamic Energy Budget theory
Abstract Environmental conditions experienced by aquatic organisms are archived in biogenic carbonates such as fish otoliths, bivalve shells and coral skeletons. These calcified structures present an accretionary growth and variations in optical properties - color or opacity - that are used to reconstruct time. Full and reliable exploitation of the information extracted from these structures is, however, often limited as the metabolic processes that control their growth and their optical properties are poorly understood. Here, we propose a new modeling framework that couples both the growth of a biogenic carbonate and its optical properties with the metabolism of the organism. The model relies on well-tested properties of Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory. It is applied to otoliths of the Bay of Biscay anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) for which a DEB model has been previously developed. The model reproduces well-known otolith patterns and thus provides us with mechanisms for the metabolic control of otolith size and opacity at the scale of an individual lifespan. Two original contributions using this framework are demonstrated. First, the model can be used to reconstruct the temporal variations in the food assimilated by an individual fish. Reconstructing food conditions of past and present aquatic species in their natural environment is key ecological information to better understand population dynamics. Second, we show that non-seasonal checks can be discriminated from seasonal checks, which is a well-recognized problem when interpreting fish otoliths. We discuss further developments of the model and the experimental settings required to test this new promising framework.
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Pecquerie Laure, Fablet Ronan, de Pontual Helene, Bonhommeau Sylvain, Alunno-Bruscia Marianne, Petitgas Pierre, Kooijman Sebastiaan A. L. M. (2012). Reconstructing individual food and growth histories from biogenic carbonates. Marine Ecology-progress Series, 447, 151-164. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09492 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00060/17082/