A Manipulative Test of Competing Theories for Metabolic Scaling

The reasons why metabolic rate (B) scales allometrically with body mass (M) remain hotly debated. The field is dominated by correlational analyses of the relationship betweenBandM; these struggle to disentangle competing explanations because bothBandMare confounded with ontogeny, life history, and e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American naturalist 2011-12, Vol.178 (6), p.746-754
Main Authors: White, Craig R., Kearney, Michael R., Matthews, Philip G. D., Kooijman, Sebastiaan A. L. M., Marshall, Dustin J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Average linear density
Basal Metabolism
Biological and medical sciences
Body Size
Bryozoa - physiology
Energy Metabolism
Fractals
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Glass art
Metabolism
Modeling
Models, Biological
Oxygen consumption
Queensland
Regression Analysis
Sea water
Test theory
Two dimensional modeling
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Summary:The reasons why metabolic rate (B) scales allometrically with body mass (M) remain hotly debated. The field is dominated by correlational analyses of the relationship betweenBandM; these struggle to disentangle competing explanations because bothBandMare confounded with ontogeny, life history, and ecology. Here, we overcome these problems by using an experimental approach to test among competing metabolic theories. We examined the scaling ofBin size-manipulated and intact colonies of a bryozoan and show thatBscales withM 0.5. To explain this, we apply a general model based on the dynamic energy budget theory for metabolic organization that predictsBon the basis of energy allocation to assimilation, maintenance, growth, and maturation. Uniquely, this model predicts the absolute value ofB, emphasizes that there is no single scaling exponent ofB, and demonstrates that a single model can explain the variation inBseen in nature.
ISSN:0003-0147
1537-5323
DOI:10.1086/662666