Résumé: The European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is a species of particular ecological and economic importance. Stock assessments have recently revealed the worrying state of the “Northern stock”, probably due to overfishing and a series of poor recruitments. The extent to which these poor recruitments are due to environmental variability is difficult to assess, as the processes driving the seabass life cycle are poorly known. Here we investigate how food availability and temperature may affect the growth and survival of wild seabass at the individual scale. To this end, we developed a bioenergetics model based on the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory. We applied it to seabass population of the Northeast Atlantic region (Bay of Biscay – English Channel area) throughout their entire life cycle. We calibrated the model using a combination of age-related length and weight datasets: two were from aquaculture experiments (larvae and juveniles raised at 15 and 20°C) and one from a wild population (juveniles and adults collected during surveys or fish market sampling). By calibrating the scaled functional response that rules the ingestion of food and using average temperature conditions experienced by wild seabass (obtained from tagged individuals), the model was able to reproduce the duration of the different stages, the growth of the individuals, the number of batches and their survival to starvation. We also captured one of the major differences encountered in the life traits of the species: farmed fish mature earlier than wild fish (3 to 4 years old vs. 6 years old on average for females, respectively) probably due to better feeding conditions and higher temperature. We explored the growth and survival of larvae and juveniles by exposing the individuals to varying temperatures and food levels (including total starvation). We show that early life stages of seabass have a strong capacity to deal with food deprivation: the model estimated that first feeding larvae could survive 17 days at 15°C. We also tested individual variability by adjusting the specific maximum assimilation rate and found that larvae and juveniles with higher assimilation capacity better survived low food levels at a higher temperature. We discuss our results in the context of the recent years of poor recruitment faced by European seabass.

Résumé: While many ectothermic species can withstand prolonged fasting without mortality, food deprivation may have sublethal effects of ecological importance, including reductions in locomotor ability. Little is known about how such changes in performance in individual animals are related to either mass loss during food deprivation or growth rate during re-feeding. This study followed changes in the maximum sprint swimming performance of individual European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, throughout 45 days of food deprivation and 30 days of re-feeding. Maximum sprint speed did not show a significant decline until 45 days of food deprivation. Among individuals, the reduction in sprinting speed at this time was not related to mass loss. After 30 days of re-feeding, mean sprinting speed had recovered to match that of control fish. Among individuals, however, maximum sprinting speed was negatively correlated with growth rate after the resumption of feeding. This suggests that the rapid compensatory growth that occurs during re-feeding after a prolonged fast carries a physiological cost in terms of reduced sprinting capacity, the extent of which shows continuous variation among individuals in relation to growth rate. The long-term repeatability of maximum sprint speed was low when fish were fasted or fed a maintenance ration, but was high among control fish fed to satiation. Fish that had been previously food deprived continued to show low repeatability in sprinting ability even after the initiation of ad libitum feeding, probably stemming from variation in compensatory growth among individuals and its associated negative effects on sprinting ability. Together, these results suggest that food limitation can disrupt hierarchies of maximum sprint performance within populations. In the wild, the cumulative effects on locomotor capacity of fasting and re-feeding could lead to variable survival among individuals with different growth trajectories following a period of food deprivation.

Résumé: Clay consumption is a spontaneous behavior currently observed in animals and humans, particularly during undernutrition. Often regarded as intestinal care products, ingested clays also enhance food efficiency, notably by increasing intestinal lipid uptake. Clay complementation could then optimize the reconstitution of energy reserves in animals with low lipid stocks consecutive to intensive fasting. The aim of this study was therefore to observe the effects of voluntarily kaolinite complementation during the refeeding of fasted rats to determine whether body mass, food uptake, lipid and mineral contents as intestinal morphology and protein profile were modified. This study examined two types of refeeding experiments after prolonged fasting. Firstly, rats with ad libitum access to food were compared to rats with ad libitum access to food and kaolinite pellets. Animals were randomly put into the different groups when the third phase of fasting (phase III) reached by each individual was detected. In a second set of experiments, rats starting phase III were refed with free access to food and kaolinite pellets. When animals had regained their body mass prior to fasting, they were euthanized for chemical, morphological, and proteomic analyses. Although kaolinite ingestion did not change the time needed for regaining prefasting body mass, daily food ingestion was seen to decrease by 6.8% compared with normally refed rats, without affecting lipid composition. Along the intestinal lining, enterocytes of complemented animals contained abundant lipid droplets and a structural modification of the brushborder was observed. Moreover, the expression of two apolipoproteins involved in lipid transport and satiety (ApoA-I and ApoA-IV) increased in complemented rats. These results suggest that kaolinite complementation favors intestinal nutrient absorption during refeeding despite reduced food uptake. Within the intestinal lumen, clay particles could increase the passive absorption capacity and/or nutrient availability that induce mucosal morphological changes. Therefore, clay ingestion appears to be beneficial for individuals undergoing extreme nutritional conditions such as refeeding and limited food supplies.