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Thermodynamic and metabolic effects on the scaling of production and population energy use

S. K. Morgan Ernest

Corresponding Author

Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

E‐mail:

mernest@unm.edu

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Brian J. Enquist

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

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James H. Brown

Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

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Eric L. Charnov

Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

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James F. Gillooly

Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

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Van M. Savage

Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA

Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA

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Ethan P. White

Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

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Felisa A. Smith

Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

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Elizabeth A. Hadly

Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

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John P. Haskell

Department of Rangeland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

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S. Kathleen Lyons

Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

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Brian A. Maurer

Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

Department of Geography, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

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Karl J. Niklas

Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

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Bruce Tiffney

Department of Geological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

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First published: 26 September 2003
Cited by: 141

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.

Number of times cited: 141

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