Parameters, ecological constraints and exergy

Abstract The relation between parameter choice and exergy was found for models of increasing complexity. The results show that the exergy is (very) dependent on the parameters that were examined, i.e. growth rates of phytoplankton, bacteria, two zooplankton classes, and fish. ‘Survival of the fittest’, which is represented in the model by the exergy, is a realistic ecological constraint to apply to the model. It seems therefore reasonable to use exergy to find a good first initial guess for parameters. It is a support for this statement that the parameters found by this method are in accordance with the literature values.