Using Bioenergetics to Model the Effects of Climate Change on Bluntnose Minnows Pimephales notatus in a Western Kentucky Stream

Bioenergetics considers a variety of factors like consumption, excretion, and metabolism to quantify the energy use of an organism. A common use of bioenergetics modeling is to help solve fish stock problems. This project looks to develop a bioenergetics model for Bluntnose Minnows Pimephales notatus to help predict effects of climate change on the biodiversity of western Kentucky streams. We used R and NetLogo to create an agent-based bioenergetics model to simulate the size distribution of Bluntnose Minnows under various temperature regimes. Bluntnose Minnow metabolism increases, and consumption decreases with an increase in water temperature. Fish growth seems to be the most affected by an increase in temperature and fish size in our model. Future models will concentrate on the influence of water temperature on fish activity level and density dependent effects