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Journal ArticleDOI

Toward a metabolic theory of ecology

01 Jul 2004-Ecology (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd)-Vol. 85, Iss: 7, pp 1771-1789
TL;DR: This work has developed a quantitative theory for how metabolic rate varies with body size and temperature, and predicts how metabolic theory predicts how this rate controls ecological processes at all levels of organization from individuals to the biosphere.
Abstract: Metabolism provides a basis for using first principles of physics, chemistry, and biology to link the biology of individual organisms to the ecology of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Metabolic rate, the rate at which organisms take up, transform, and expend energy and materials, is the most fundamental biological rate. We have developed a quantitative theory for how metabolic rate varies with body size and temperature. Metabolic theory predicts how metabolic rate, by setting the rates of resource uptake from the environment and resource allocation to survival, growth, and reproduction, controls ecological processes at all levels of organization from individuals to the biosphere. Examples include: (1) life history attributes, including devel- opment rate, mortality rate, age at maturity, life span, and population growth rate; (2) population interactions, including carrying capacity, rates of competition and predation, and patterns of species diversity; and (3) ecosystem processes, including rates of biomass production and respiration and patterns of trophic dynamics. Data compiled from the ecological literature strongly support the theoretical predictions. Even- tually, metabolic theory may provide a conceptual foundation for much of ecology, just as genetic theory provides a foundation for much of evolutionary biology.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is asserted that community ecology should return to an emphasis on four themes that are tied together by a two-step process: how the fundamental niche is governed by functional traits within the context of abiotic environmental gradients; and how the interaction between traits and fundamental niches maps onto the realized niche in the context a biotic interaction milieu.
Abstract: There is considerable debate about whether community ecology will ever produce general principles. We suggest here that this can be achieved but that community ecology has lost its way by focusing on pairwise species interactions independent of the environment. We assert that community ecology should return to an emphasis on four themes that are tied together by a two-step process: how the fundamental niche is governed by functional traits within the context of abiotic environmental gradients; and how the interaction between traits and fundamental niches maps onto the realized niche in the context of a biotic interaction milieu. We suggest this approach can create a more quantitative and predictive science that can more readily address issues of global change.

3,715 citations


Cites background from "Toward a metabolic theory of ecolog..."

  • ...However, the mainstream of macroecology has usually focused on only one trait (body size, but see [50]), has not traditionally focused on performance currencies (but see [ 51 ,52]), tends not to focus on environmental variables (except when exploring latitudinal and productivity gradients in diversity), and arguably deemphasizes niches and the competitive milieu in the pursuit of pattern over process....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Organizing the material of community ecology according to this framework can clarify the essential similarities and differences among the many conceptual and theoretical approaches to the discipline, and allow for the articulation of a very general theory of community dynamics.
Abstract: Community ecology is often perceived as a mess, given the seemingly vast number of processes that can underlie the many patterns of interest, and the apparent uniqueness of each study system. However, at the most general level, patterns in the composition and diversity of speciesthe subject matter of community ecologyare influenced by only four classes of process: selection, drift, speciation, and dispersal. Selection represents deterministic fitness differences among species, drift represents stochastic changes in species abundance, speciation creates new species, and dispersal is the movement of organisms across space. All theoretical and conceptual models in community ecology can be understood with respect to their emphasis on these four processes. Empirical evidence exists for all of these processes and many of their interactions, with a predominance of studies on selection. Organizing the material of community ecology according to this framework can clarify the essential similarities and dif...

1,792 citations


Cites background from "Toward a metabolic theory of ecolog..."

  • ...…focused on community ecology, two highly influential theoretical frameworks that cut across sub-fields of biology, but with some connections to community ecology, are worth mentioning: the metabolic theory of ecology (Brown et al. 2004) and ecological stoichiometry (Sterner and Elser 2002)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study provides evidence that reduced body size is the third universal ecological response to global warming in aquatic systems besides the shift of species ranges toward higher altitudes and latitudes and the seasonal shifts in life cycle events.
Abstract: Understanding the ecological impacts of climate change is a crucial challenge of the twenty-first century. There is a clear lack of general rules regarding the impacts of global warming on biota. Here, we present a metaanalysis of the effect of climate change on body size of ectothermic aquatic organisms (bacteria, phyto- and zooplankton, and fish) from the community to the individual level. Using long-term surveys, experimental data and published results, we show a significant increase in the proportion of small-sized species and young age classes and a decrease in size-at-age. These results are in accordance with the ecological rules dealing with the temperature–size relationships (i.e., Bergmann's rule, James' rule and Temperature–Size Rule). Our study provides evidence that reduced body size is the third universal ecological response to global warming in aquatic systems besides the shift of species ranges toward higher altitudes and latitudes and the seasonal shifts in life cycle events.

1,292 citations


Cites background from "Toward a metabolic theory of ecolog..."

  • ...For instance the metabolic theory of ecology [MTE (33)] could help to understand at least part of the involved mechanisms....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review proposes two main avenues to progress the understanding and prediction of the different processes occurring on the leading and trailing edge of the species' distribution in response to any global change phenomena and concludes with clear guidelines on how such modelling improvements will benefit conservation strategies in a changing world.
Abstract: Given the rate of projected environmental change for the 21st century, urgent adaptation and mitigation measures are required to slow down the on-going erosion of biodiversity. Even though increasing evidence shows that recent human-induced environmental changes have already triggered species' range shifts, changes in phenology and species' extinctions, accurate projections of species' responses to future environmental changes are more difficult to ascertain. This is problematic, since there is a growing awareness of the need to adopt proactive conservation planning measures using forecasts of species' responses to future environmental changes. There is a substantial body of literature describing and assessing the impacts of various scenarios of climate and land-use change on species' distributions. Model predictions include a wide range of assumptions and limitations that are widely acknowledged but compromise their use for developing reliable adaptation and mitigation strategies for biodiversity. Indeed, amongst the most used models, few, if any, explicitly deal with migration processes, the dynamics of population at the "trailing edge" of shifting populations, species' interactions and the interaction between the effects of climate and land-use. In this review, we propose two main avenues to progress the understanding and prediction of the different processes A occurring on the leading and trailing edge of the species' distribution in response to any global change phenomena. Deliberately focusing on plant species, we first explore the different ways to incorporate species' migration in the existing modelling approaches, given data and knowledge limitations and the dual effects of climate and land-use factors. Secondly, we explore the mechanisms and processes happening at the trailing edge of a shifting species' distribution and how to implement them into a modelling approach. We finally conclude this review with clear guidelines on how such modelling improvements will benefit conservation strategies in a changing world. (c) 2007 Rubel Foundation, ETH Zurich. Published by Elsevier GrnbH. All rights reserved.

1,134 citations


Cites background from "Toward a metabolic theory of ecolog..."

  • ...…there is indeed much to be done, but there is also real hope that integrative programmes and projects will help filling in gaps between distinctive fields of research, thus contributing to the emergence of the new generation of forecasting methodologies that are more useful for decision making....

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  • ...Metabolic theory makes very simple and generic predictions on the temperature dependence of population growth rates and carrying capacities (Brown et al., 2004)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a new framework to describe the structure and functioning of ecological networks and to assess the probable consequences of biodiversity change, by incorporating body size into theoretical models that explore food web stability and the patterning of energy fluxes.
Abstract: Body size determines a host of species traits that can affect the structure and dynamics of food webs, and other ecological networks, across multiple scales of organization. Measuring body size provides a relatively simple means of encapsulating and condensing a large amount of the biological information embedded within an ecological network. Recently, important advances have been made by incorporating body size into theoretical models that explore food web stability, the patterning of energy fluxes, and responses to perturbations. Because metabolic constraints underpin body-size scaling relationships, metabolic theory offers a potentially useful new framework within which to develop novel models to describe the structure and functioning of ecological networks and to assess the probable consequences of biodiversity change.

1,041 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It seems possible that one factor in aging may be related to deleterious side attacks of free radicals (which are normally produced in the course of cellular metabolism) on cell constituents.
Abstract: The phenomenon of growth, decline and death—aging—has been the source of considerable speculation (1, 8, 10). This cycle seems to be a more or less direct function of the metabolic rate and this in turn depends on the species (animal or plant) on which are superimposed the factors of heredity and the effects of the stresses and strains of life—which alter the metabolic activity. The universality of this phenomenon suggests that the reactions which cause it are basically the same in all living things. Viewing this process in the light of present day free radical and radiation chemistry and of radiobiology, it seems possible that one factor in aging may be related to deleterious side attacks of free radicals (which are normally produced in the course of cellular metabolism) on cell constituents.* Irradiation of living things induces mutation, cancer, and aging (9). Inasmuch as these also arise spontaneously in nature, it is natural to inquire if the processes might not be similar. It is believed that one mechanism of irradiation effect is through liberation of OH and HO 2 radicals (12). There is evidence, although indirect, that these two highly active free radicals are produced normally in living systems. In the first place, free radicals are present in living cells; this was recently demonstrated in vivo by a paramagnetic resonance absorption method (3). Further, it was shown that the concentration of free radicals increased with increasing metabolic activity in conformity with the postulates set forth some years ago that free radicals were involved in biologic oxidation-reduction reactions (11, 13). Are some of these free radicals OH and/or HO2, or radicals of a similar high order of reactivity, and where might they arise in the cell? The most likely source of OH and HO2 radicals, at least in the animal cell, would be the interaction of the respiratory enzymes involved

7,917 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jun 1980-Planta
TL;DR: Various aspects of the biochemistry of photosynthetic carbon assimilation in C3 plants are integrated into a form compatible with studies of gas exchange in leaves.
Abstract: Various aspects of the biochemistry of photosynthetic carbon assimilation in C3 plants are integrated into a form compatible with studies of gas exchange in leaves. These aspects include the kinetic properties of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase; the requirements of the photosynthetic carbon reduction and photorespiratory carbon oxidation cycles for reduced pyridine nucleotides; the dependence of electron transport on photon flux and the presence of a temperature dependent upper limit to electron transport. The measurements of gas exchange with which the model outputs may be compared include those of the temperature and partial pressure of CO2(p(CO2)) dependencies of quantum yield, the variation of compensation point with temperature and partial pressure of O2(p(O2)), the dependence of net CO2 assimilation rate on p(CO2) and irradiance, and the influence of p(CO2) and irradiance on the temperature dependence of assimilation rate.

7,312 citations


"Toward a metabolic theory of ecolog..." refers background in this paper

  • ...For an autotroph, the metabolic rate is equal to the rate of photosynthesis because this same reaction is run in reverse using energy (i.e., photons) provided by the sun to fix carbon (Farquhar et al. 1980)....

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  • ...Photosynthesis consists of multiple biochemical reactions, some of which are temperature dependent and have a range of activation energies (0.35–0.65 eV; Bernacchi et al. 2001), and some of which are dependent only on light (Farquhar et al. 1980)....

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  • ...Terrestrial plants maximize photosynthesis in different environments by differentially partitioning proteins among enzymatic reactions based on their respective temperature and light dependencies (Farquhar et al. 1980, Field and Mooney 1986)....

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Book
01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: This book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities and explores such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.
Abstract: One of the central questions of ecology is why there are so many different kinds of plants and animals Here David Tilman presents a theory of how organisms compete for resources and the way their competition promotes diversity Developing Hutchinson's suggestion that the main cause of diversity is the feeding relations of species, this book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities In a detailed analysis of the Park Grass Experiments at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in England, the author demonstrates that the dramatic results of these 120 years of experimentation are consistent with his theory, as are observations in many other natural communities The consumer-resource approach of this book is applicable to both animal and plant communities, but the majority of Professor Tilman's discussion concentrates on the structure of plant communities All theoretical arguments are developed graphically, and formal mathematics is kept to a minimum The final chapters of the book provide some testable speculations about resources and animal communities and explore such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession

5,795 citations

Book
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: A study of the issue indicates that it is not a serious problem for neutral theory, and there is sometimes a difference between some of the simulation-based results of Hubbell and the analytical results of Volkov et al. (2003).
Abstract: study of the issue indicates that it is not a serious problem for neutral theory, for reasons we discuss below. First, a bit of background. Hubbell (2001) derived the analytical expression for the stochastic mean and variance of the abundance of a single arbitrary species in a neutral community undergoing immigration from a metacommunity source area. However, his approach did not lend itself to an analytical solution for the distribution of relative species abundance (RSA) in a multispecies community for community sizes larger than a handful of individuals. As a result, all of Hubbell's RSA distributions for local communities were based on simulations. This problem was solved by Volkov et al. (2003), who derived an analytical expression for the RSA distribution in local communities of arbitrary size. However, as Chisholm and Burgman noted, there is sometimes a difference between some of the simulation-based results of Hubbell and the analytical results of Volkov et al. (2003). Chisholm and Burgman computed Volkov's equation and resimulated Hubbell's results for the four cases

5,317 citations

Book
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: The comparative method for studying adaptation why worry about phylogeny?
Abstract: The comparative method for studying adaptation why worry about phylogeny? reconstructing phylogenetic trees and ancestral character states comparative analysis of discrete data comparative analysis of continuous variables determining the form of comparative relationships.

5,197 citations