IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v417y2002i6885d10.1038_417166a.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Allometric cascade as a unifying principle of body mass effects on metabolism

Author

Listed:
  • Charles-A. Darveau

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Raul K. Suarez

    (University of California)

  • Russel D. Andrews

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Peter W. Hochachka

    (University of British Columbia)

Abstract

The power function of basal metabolic rate scaling is expressed as aMb, where a corresponds to a scaling constant (intercept), M is body mass, and b is the scaling exponent. The 3/4 power law (the best-fit b value for mammals) was developed from Kleiber's original analysis1 and, since then, most workers have searched for a single cause to explain the observed allometry. Here we present a multiple-causes model of allometry, where the exponent b is the sum of the influences of multiple contributors to metabolism and control. The relative strength of each contributor, with its own characteristic exponent value, is determined by the control contribution. To illustrate its use, we apply this model to maximum versus basal metabolic rates to explain the differing scaling behaviour of these two biological states in mammals. The main difference in scaling is that, for the basal metabolic rate, the O2 delivery steps contribute almost nothing to the global b scaling exponent, whereas for the maximum metabolic rate, the O2 delivery steps significantly increase the global b value.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles-A. Darveau & Raul K. Suarez & Russel D. Andrews & Peter W. Hochachka, 2002. "Allometric cascade as a unifying principle of body mass effects on metabolism," Nature, Nature, vol. 417(6885), pages 166-170, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:417:y:2002:i:6885:d:10.1038_417166a
    DOI: 10.1038/417166a
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/417166a
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/417166a?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dalgaard, Carl-Johan & Strulik, Holger, 2008. "A Bioeconomic Foundation for the Nutrition-based Efficiency Wage Model," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-396, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    2. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Holger Strulik, 2015. "The physiological foundations of the wealth of nations," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 37-73, March.
    3. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Holger Strulik, 2006. "Subsistence – A Bio-economic Foundation of the Malthusian Equilibrium," Discussion Papers 06-17, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    4. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Holger Strulik, 2011. "A physiological foundation for the nutrition-based efficiency wage model," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 63(2), pages 232-253, April.
    5. Karl J Kaiyala, 2014. "Mathematical Model for the Contribution of Individual Organs to Non-Zero Y-Intercepts in Single and Multi-Compartment Linear Models of Whole-Body Energy Expenditure," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-10, July.
    6. He, Ji-Huan, 2006. "Application of E-infinity theory to biology," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 285-289.
    7. Dalgaard, Carl-Johan & Strulik, Holger, 2007. "A Bioeconomic Foundation of the Malthusian Equilibrium: Body Size and Population Size in the Long-Run," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-373, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:417:y:2002:i:6885:d:10.1038_417166a. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.