ABSTRACT
All ‘shes are consumers. They must obtain energy in the diet in order to live and carry out activities necessary to complete their life history needs. Bioenergetics, in part, is the study of how much energy is taken in and what happens to it, that is, how it is partitioned and used to provide for the needs of the organism. The amount of energy available in the food varies among food items and within the ‘sh, primarily due to differences in costs of metabolism and ‘sh activity. As previously discussed, the relative amount of energy available for growth and reproduction can be critical in considering ‘tness. In this section, we will explore assimilation and partitioning of energy for various body functions. Later we will study how energy is obtained (i.e., feeding) and used (i.e., activity, growth, and reproduction).
