We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
REPORT Thermodynamic and metabolic effects on the scaling of production and population energy use.
- Authors
Ernest, S. K. Morgan; Enquist, Brian J.; Brown, James H.; Charnov, Eric L.; Gillooly, James F.; Savage, Van M.; White, Ethan P.; Smith, Felisa A.; Hadly, Elizabeth A.; Haskell, John P.; Lyons, S. Kathleen; Maurer, Brian A.; Niklas, Karl J.; Tiffney, Bruce
- Abstract
Ecosystem properties result in part from the characteristics of individual organisms. How these individual traits scale to impact ecosystem-level processes is currently unclear. Because metabolism is a fundamental process underlying many individual- and population-level variables, it provides a mechanism for linking individual characteristics with large-scale processes. Here we use metabolism and ecosystem thermodynamics to scale from physiology to individual biomass production and population-level energy use. Temperature-corrected rates of individual-level biomass production show the same body-size dependence across a wide range of aerobic eukaryotes, from unicellular organisms to mammals and vascular plants. Population-level energy use for both mammals and plants are strongly influenced by both metabolism and thermodynamic constraints on energy exchange between trophic levels. Our results show that because metabolism is a fundamental trait of organisms, it not only provides a link between individual- and ecosystem-level processes, but can also highlight other important factors constraining ecological structure and dynamics.
- Subjects
BIOTIC communities; METABOLISM; THERMODYNAMICS; PHYSIOLOGY; BIOMASS; UNICELLULAR organisms; MAMMALS; BOTANY; ECOLOGY
- Publication
Ecology Letters, 2003, Vol 6, Issue 11, p990
- ISSN
1461-023X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00526.x