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The relationship between body mass and field metabolic rate among individual birds and mammals.

ABSTRACT: 1. The power-law dependence of metabolic rate on body mass has major implications at every level of ecological organization. However, the overwhelming majority of studies examining this relationship have used basal or resting metabolic rates, and/or have used data consisting of species-averaged masses and metabolic rates. Field metabolic rates are more ecologically relevant and are probably more directly subject to natural selection than basal rates. Individual rates might be more important than species-average rates in determining the outcome of ecological interactions, and hence selection. 2. We here provide the first comprehensive database of published field metabolic rates and body masses of individual birds and mammals, containing measurements of 1498 animals of 133 species in 28 orders. We used linear mixed-effects models to answer questions about the body mass scaling of metabolic rate and its taxonomic universality/heterogeneity that have become classic areas of controversy. Our statistical approach allows mean scaling exponents and taxonomic heterogeneity in scaling to be analysed in a unified way while simultaneously accounting for nonindependence in the data due to shared evolutionary history of related species. 3. The mean power-law scaling exponents of metabolic rate vs. body mass relationships were 0.71 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.625-0.795] for birds and 0.64 (95% CI 0.564-0.716) for mammals. However, these central tendencies obscured meaningful taxonomic heterogeneity in scaling exponents. The primary taxonomic level at which heterogeneity occurred was the order level. Substantial heterogeneity also occurred at the species level, a fact that cannot be revealed by species-averaged data sets used in prior work. Variability in scaling exponents at both order and species levels was comparable to or exceeded the differences 3/4-2/3 = 1/12 and 0.71-0.64. 4. Results are interpreted in the light of a variety of existing theories. In particular, results are consistent with the heat dissipation theory of Speakman & Król (2010) and provided some support for the metabolic levels boundary hypothesis of Glazier (2010). 5. Our analysis provides the first comprehensive empirical analysis of the scaling relationship between field metabolic rate and body mass in individual birds and mammals. Our data set is a valuable contribution to those interested in theories of the allometry of metabolic rates.

SUBMITTER: Hudson LN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3840704 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The relationship between body mass and field metabolic rate among individual birds and mammals.

Hudson Lawrence N LN Isaac Nick J B NJ Reuman Daniel C DC

The Journal of animal ecology 20130523 5

1. The power-law dependence of metabolic rate on body mass has major implications at every level of ecological organization. However, the overwhelming majority of studies examining this relationship have used basal or resting metabolic rates, and/or have used data consisting of species-averaged masses and metabolic rates. Field metabolic rates are more ecologically relevant and are probably more directly subject to natural selection than basal rates. Individual rates might be more important than ...[more]

PMID: 23701213

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Project description:The Mass, Metabolism and Length Explanation (MMLE) was advanced in 1984 to explain the relationship between metabolic rate and body mass for birds and mammals. This paper reports on a modernized version of MMLE. MMLE deterministically computes the absolute value of Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and body mass for individual animals. MMLE is thus distinct from other examinations of these topics that use species-averaged data to estimate the parameters in a statistically best fit power law relationship such as BMR = a(bodymass) (b) . Beginning with the proposition that BMR is proportional to the number of mitochondria in an animal, two primary equations are derived that compute BMR and body mass as functions of an individual animal's characteristic length and sturdiness factor. The characteristic length is a measureable skeletal length associated with an animal's means of propulsion. The sturdiness factor expresses how sturdy or gracile an animal is. Eight other parameters occur in the equations that vary little among animals in the same phylogenetic group. The present paper modernizes MMLE by explicitly treating Froude and Strouhal dynamic similarity of mammals' skeletal musculature, revising the treatment of BMR and using new data to estimate numerical values for the parameters that occur in the equations. A mass and length data set with 575 entries from the orders Rodentia, Chiroptera, Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Perissodactyla and Proboscidea is used. A BMR and mass data set with 436 entries from the orders Rodentia, Chiroptera, Artiodactyla and Carnivora is also used. With the estimated parameter values MMLE can calculate characteristic length and sturdiness factor values so that every BMR and mass datum from the BMR and mass data set can be computed exactly. Furthermore MMLE can calculate characteristic length and sturdiness factor values so that every body mass and length datum from the mass and length data set can be computed exactly. Whether or not MMLE can calculate a sturdiness factor value so that an individual animal's BMR and body mass can be simultaneously computed given its characteristic length awaits analysis of a data set that simultaneously reports all three of these items for individual animals. However for many of the addressed MMLE homogeneous groups, MMLE can predict the exponent obtained by regression analysis of the BMR and mass data using the exponent obtained by regression analysis of the mass and length data. This argues that MMLE may be able to accurately simultaneously compute BMR and mass for an individual animal.

Dataset Information

The relationship between body mass and field metabolic rate among individual birds and mammals.

Publications

The relationship between body mass and field metabolic rate among individual birds and mammals.

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