Quantitative aspects of metabolic organization: a discussion of concepts

Metabolic organization of individual organisms follows simple quantitative rules that can be understood from basic physical chemical principles. Dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory identifies these rules, which quantify how individuals acquire and use energy and nutrients. The theory provides constra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2001-03, Vol.356 (1407), p.331-349
Main Author: Kooijman, S.A.L.M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological Evolution
Body-Size Scaling Relationships
Cellular metabolism
Dynamic Energy Mass Budgets
Ecosystem
Energy Metabolism - physiology
Enzymes
Evolution
Homeostasis
Humans
Kinetics
Maintenance costs
Metabolism
Models, Biological
Population dynamics
Reserves
Respiration
Surface areas
Time Factors
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Summary:Metabolic organization of individual organisms follows simple quantitative rules that can be understood from basic physical chemical principles. Dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory identifies these rules, which quantify how individuals acquire and use energy and nutrients. The theory provides constraints on the metabolic organization of subcellular processes. Together with rules for interaction between individuals, it also provides a basis to understand population and ecosystem dynamics. The theory, therefore, links various levels of biological organization. It applies to all species of organisms and offers explanations for body-size scaling relationships of natural history parameters that are otherwise difficult to understand. A considerable number of popular empirical models turn out to be special cases of the DEB model, or very close numerical approximations. Strong and weak homeostasis and the partitionability of reserve kinetics are cornerstones of the theory and essential for understanding the evolution of metabolic organization.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2000.0771