Bioenergetics is used as the mechanistic foundation of many models of fishes. As the context of a model gradually extends beyond pure bioenergetics to include behaviour, life-history traits and function and performance of the entire organism, so does the need for complementing bioenergetic measurements with trade-offs, particularly those dealing with survival. Such a broadening of focus revitalized and expanded the domain of behavioural ecology in the 1980s. This review makes the case that a similar change of perspective is required for physiology to contribute to the types of predictions society currently demands, e.g. regarding climate change and other anthropogenic stressors.
Keywords: SMR; aerobic scope; metabolic costs; mortality; non-consumptive effects; risk-taking.
© 2015 The Authors. Journal of Fish Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.