Making sense of chemical stress: Application of Dynamic Energy Budget theory in ecotoxicology and stress ecology

Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory is a powerful framework for ecotoxicology and stress ecology. This book provides a gentle introduction into the concepts behind DEB theory, and how to apply them in practice.
Have you ever asked yourself why the effects of toxic chemicals depend on the exposure time? Or asked why stress effects on growth and reproduction are so different in the same organism, even though these responses must be linked in some causal way? Did you ever wish to understand toxic effects, so that you can make an educated prediction of effects under other conditions? Or do you want to understand why toxic effects depend on other factors such as temperature, food density, and life stage? This book addresses those questions by taking a radically different approach than what is common in ecotoxicology and stress ecology: by simplifying biological reality to an enormous extent. In this book, I will present a mechanistic treatment of chemical effects. The main focus lies on one particularly useful framework for the interpretation of toxic effects, namely Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory. Even if you are not convinced that this theory is the way to go for your particular problem, knowledge of the concepts behind it allows you to examine your (and other people's) data and models more critically. DEB theory is a powerful framework for ecotoxicology and stress ecology. This book provides a gentle introduction into the concepts behind the theory, and how to apply them in practice.