Special Issue

Special Issues on Dynamic Energy Budget theory

A new Virtual Special Issue (VSI) will be presented in Ecological Modelling following the 2025 International Symposium in Heraklion.

The guest editors are: Romain Lavaud (managing editor), Konstadia Lika, André Gergs, Gonçalo Marques, and Orestis Stavrakidis-Zachou.

The provisional themed title of the VSI is "Dynamic Energy Budget Modeling: Advancing Stress Ecology and Biodiversity Research in a Changing Environment".

As we confront the pressing challenges of stress ecology, biodiversity loss, and environmental change, numerical modeling has become an essential tool for scientists, managers, and stakeholders to effectively navigate these complex issues. The Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory provides a framework for developing interconnected models grounded in a mechanistic understanding of individual metabolic processes. This approach is vital for linking functional traits to predictive variables, thereby enhancing the adaptability of models to dynamic environmental conditions. We invite submissions for this Virtual Special Issue that showcase recent advancements in the application of DEB theory to real-world challenges, including innovative theoretical developments within the framework.

The VSI also welcomes critical views on the theory, as well as contributions that were not presented during the 9th International Symposium on DEB theory.

Tentative calendar:

• Date the submission portal opens for submissions: 1st September 2025
• Final manuscript submission deadline: 1st February 2026 (date by which all manuscripts should have been submitted to the journal)
• Editorial acceptance deadline: 1st June 2024 (date by which all manuscripts should be fully reviewed and final decisions have been made)

Instructions for submission:

The submission portal for this journal will be located at: https://www.editorialmanager.com/ecomod/default1.aspx. To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for inclusion into the special issue, it is important that authors select VSI:DEB2025 when they reach the 'Article Type' step in the submission process.

The submission portal is not yet open, please stay tuned for updates

There were nine previous Special Issues on DEB theory:

Virtual special issue on DEB: Metabolic Organisation across Scales of Space and Time - Ecological Modelling (2024)

Virtual special issue on DEB: Forecasting in a changing world - Conservation Physiology (2022)

Virtual special issue on 40 years of DEB: Metabolic organization in ecological modelling - Journal of Ecological Modelling (2020)

Ecosystem-based management and the biosphere: A new phase in DEB research - Journal of Sea Research 143 (2017)

Dynamic Energy Budget theory: applications in marine sciences and fishery biology - Journal of Sea Research 94 (2014)

The AquaDEB project (phase II): what we've learned from applying the Dynamic Energy Budget theory on aquatic organisms - Journal of Sea Research 65 (2011) issue 1

Developments in dynamic energy budget theory and its applications - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (2010)

Metabolic organization: 30 years of DEB applications and developments - Journal of Sea Research 62 (2009) issue 2,3

Dynamic Energy Budgets in Bivalves - Journal of Sea Research 56 (2006) issue 2