Curvature in metabolic scaling

Tom Kolokotrones, Savage Van, Eric J. Deeds and Walter Fontana ()
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Tom Kolokotrones: Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Savage Van: David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA
Eric J. Deeds: Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Walter Fontana: Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

Nature, 2010, vol. 464, issue 7289, 753-756

Abstract: Making body size toe the line The relationship between an organism's metabolic rate and its body mass has fascinated biologists since Max Kleiber first proposed, in 1932, that metabolic rate scales across species with body mass raised to the power of 3/4. This 'scaling exponent' has been recalculated many times since, with some estimating the exponent to be close to 2/3 and others nearer to 3/4. A new analysis suggests that the relationship does not follow a straight line on a logarithmic scale, so is not a pure power law at all. Attempts to fit a straight line to what is really a curve produce 'scaling exponents' that are highly dependent on the data used. Data sets dominated by small organisms tend to produce exponents of 2/3 while those dominated by large organisms will produce 3/4.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08920

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