Potential applications of mussel modelling

Mussels are extensively cultivated worldwide and are of growing economic importance. However, constraints on the exploitation of wild mussel resources have necessitated the need for tools to improve the management of mussel cultivation towards increased production. Ecological models are increasingly being used as a management tool, and therefore the existing approaches to modelling mussels have been reviewed with respect to their possible application to the improvement of shellfish management strategies. We suggest that dynamic energy budget (DEB) models have the greatest potential in this area, and discuss the mussel DEB models that have been developed to date in terms of their physiological complexity, accuracy of prediction of individual mussel growth and ability to predict mussel population production. Individual mussel production has been predicted; however, the focus of many of the models has been on the growth and reproduction of a single mussel and therefore population effects generally have not been included. Other models at the population level have included only limited population effects, and this has reduced the capacity of many of the models to accurately predict mussel production at the population level. Interactions at the population level (self-thinning and predation) are discussed and the models that describe the consequences of these processes are examined. In future DEB models will need to include the ability to parameterise population level processes if we are to have greater confidence in their application to shellfish management.