IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jchals/v9y2018i1p4-d129166.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Contingency versus Constraints on the Body-Mass Scaling of Metabolic Rate

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas S. Glazier

    (Department of Biology, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA 16652, USA)

Abstract

I illustrate the effects of both contingency and constraints on the body-mass scaling of metabolic rate by analyzing the significantly different influences of ambient temperature (T a ) on metabolic scaling in ectothermic versus endothermic animals. Interspecific comparisons show that increasing T a results in decreasing metabolic scaling slopes in ectotherms, but increasing slopes in endotherms, a pattern uniquely predicted by the metabolic-level boundaries hypothesis, as amended to include effects of the scaling of thermal conductance in endotherms outside their thermoneutral zone. No other published theoretical model explicitly predicts this striking variation in metabolic scaling, which I explain in terms of contingent effects of T a and thermoregulatory strategy in the context of physical and geometric constraints related to the scaling of surface area, volume, and heat flow across surfaces. My analysis shows that theoretical models focused on an ideal 3/4-power law, as explained by a single universally applicable mechanism, are clearly inadequate for explaining the diversity and environmental sensitivity of metabolic scaling. An important challenge is to develop a theory of metabolic scaling that recognizes the contingent effects of multiple mechanisms that are modulated by several extrinsic and intrinsic factors within specified constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas S. Glazier, 2018. "Effects of Contingency versus Constraints on the Body-Mass Scaling of Metabolic Rate," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:9:y:2018:i:1:p:4-:d:129166
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/9/1/4/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/9/1/4/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geoffrey B. West & James H. Brown & Brian J. Enquist, 1997. "A General Model for the Origin of Allometric Scaling Laws in Biology," Working Papers 97-03-019, Santa Fe Institute.
    2. Jayanth R. Banavar & Amos Maritan & Andrea Rinaldo, 1999. "Size and form in efficient transportation networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 399(6732), pages 130-132, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Sun, Puyang & Xu, Qiqin, 2015. "Energy distribution and economic growth: An empirical test for China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 24-31.
    2. Wang, Cheng-Jun & Wu, Lingfei, 2016. "The scaling of attention networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 448(C), pages 196-204.
    3. Hennessy, David A., 2006. "Feeding and the Equilibrium Feeder Animal Price-Weight Schedule," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(2), pages 1-23, August.
    4. Dalgaard, Carl-Johan & Strulik, Holger, 2011. "Energy distribution and economic growth," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 782-797.
    5. Rossana Mastrandrea & Rob ter Burg & Yuli Shan & Klaus Hubacek & Franco Ruzzenenti, 2022. "Scaling laws in global corporations as a benchmarking approach to assess environmental performance," Papers 2206.03148, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    6. Hendriks, A. Jan, 2007. "The power of size: A meta-analysis reveals consistency of allometric regressions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 205(1), pages 196-208.
    7. Zhenpeng Li & Luo Li, 2023. "The Generation Mechanism of Degree Distribution with Power Exponent >2 and the Growth of Edges in Temporal Social Networks," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-11, June.
    8. Song, Dong-Ming & Jiang, Zhi-Qiang & Zhou, Wei-Xing, 2009. "Statistical properties of world investment networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(12), pages 2450-2460.
    9. Liu, Chuang & Zhou, Wei-Xing & Yuan, Wei-Kang, 2010. "Statistical properties of visibility graph of energy dissipation rates in three-dimensional fully developed turbulence," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(13), pages 2675-2681.
    10. Mitchell G Newberry & Daniel B Ennis & Van M Savage, 2015. "Testing Foundations of Biological Scaling Theory Using Automated Measurements of Vascular Networks," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-18, August.
    11. Zachary P Neal, 2018. "The urban metabolism of airline passengers: Scaling and sustainability," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(1), pages 212-225, January.
    12. Jiang Zhang & Lingfei Wu, 2013. "Allometry and Dissipation of Ecological Flow Networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-8, September.
    13. Zuzana Starostová & Marek Konarzewski & Jan Kozłowski & Lukáš Kratochvíl, 2013. "Ontogeny of Metabolic Rate and Red Blood Cell Size in Eyelid Geckos: Species Follow Different Paths," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-8, May.
    14. Witting, Lars, 2017. "The natural selection of metabolism and mass selects allometric transitions from prokaryotes to mammals," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 23-42.
    15. Peiteng Shi & Jiang Zhang & Bo Yang & Jingfei Luo, 2014. "Hierarchicality of Trade Flow Networks Reveals Complexity of Products," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-10, June.
    16. Carletti, Timoteo & Righi, Simone, 2010. "Weighted Fractal Networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(10), pages 2134-2142.
    17. Marc Barthélemy & Alessandro Flammini, 2009. "Co-evolution of Density and Topology in a Simple Model of City Formation," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 401-425, September.
    18. Elif Tekin & David Hunt & Mitchell G Newberry & Van M Savage, 2016. "Do Vascular Networks Branch Optimally or Randomly across Spatial Scales?," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(11), pages 1-28, November.
    19. Dalgaard, Carl-Johan & Strulik, Holger, 2008. "Energy Distribution, Power Laws, and Economic Growth," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-385, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    20. Chen, Yanguang, 2014. "An allometric scaling relation based on logistic growth of cities," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 65-77.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:9:y:2018:i:1:p:4-:d:129166. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.