Initial design for a fish bioenergetics model of Pacific saury coupled to a lower trophic ecosystem model

A fish bioenergetics model coupled with an ecosystem model was developed to reproduce the growth of Pacific saury. The model spatially covers three different oceanographic spatial domains corresponding to the Kuroshio, Oyashio, and interfrontal (mixed water) regions. In this coupled model, three (small, large, and predatory) zooplankton densities which were derived from the lower trophic level ecosystem model were input to the bioenergetics model of saury as the prey densities. Although certain model parameters were imposed from other species' bioenergetics, several model parameters were estimated from observational data specific to Pacific saury. The integrated model results reproduced appropriate growth rates of Pacific saury. Model sensitivities to water temperature and prey density are examined and observational methods to evaluate the model parameters are discussed.