IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0001932.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to Derive Biological Information from the Value of the Normalization Constant in Allometric Equations

Author

Listed:
  • Pekka Kaitaniemi

Abstract

Allometric equations are widely used in many branches of biological science. The potential information content of the normalization constant b in allometric equations of the form Y = bXa has, however, remained largely neglected. To demonstrate the potential for utilizing this information, I generated a large number of artificial datasets that resembled those that are frequently encountered in biological studies, i.e., relatively small samples including measurement error or uncontrolled variation. The value of X was allowed to vary randomly within the limits describing different data ranges, and a was set to a fixed theoretical value. The constant b was set to a range of values describing the effect of a continuous environmental variable. In addition, a normally distributed random error was added to the values of both X and Y. Two different approaches were then used to model the data. The traditional approach estimated both a and b using a regression model, whereas an alternative approach set the exponent a at its theoretical value and only estimated the value of b. Both approaches produced virtually the same model fit with less than 0.3% difference in the coefficient of determination. Only the alternative approach was able to precisely reproduce the effect of the environmental variable, which was largely lost among noise variation when using the traditional approach. The results show how the value of b can be used as a source of valuable biological information if an appropriate regression model is selected.

Suggested Citation

  • Pekka Kaitaniemi, 2008. "How to Derive Biological Information from the Value of the Normalization Constant in Allometric Equations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(4), pages 1-4, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0001932
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001932
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001932
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001932&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0001932?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian J. Enquist & Andrew J. Kerkhoff & Scott C. Stark & Nathan G. Swenson & Megan C. McCarthy & Charles A. Price, 2007. "A general integrative model for scaling plant growth, carbon flux, and functional trait spectra," Nature, Nature, vol. 449(7159), pages 218-222, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Nathan P Myhrvold, 2016. "Dinosaur Metabolism and the Allometry of Maximum Growth Rate," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-35, November.
    2. 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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kohei Koyama & Yoshiki Hidaka & Masayuki Ushio, 2012. "Dynamic Scaling in the Growth of a Non-Branching Plant, Cardiocrinum cordatum," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-5, September.
    2. Watt, Michael S. & Kirschbaum, Miko U.F., 2011. "Moving beyond simple linear allometric relationships between tree height and diameter," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(23), pages 3910-3916.
    3. Kihachiro Kikuzawa & Kenji Seiwa & Martin J Lechowicz, 2013. "Leaf Longevity as a Normalization Constant in Allometric Predictions of Plant Production," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-1, December.
    4. Hunt, Allen G. & Faybishenko, Boris & Powell, Thomas L., 2020. "A new phenomenological model to describe root-soil interactions based on percolation theory," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 433(C).
    5. Zhiqiang Wang & Heng Huang & Han Wang & Josep Peñuelas & Jordi Sardans & Ülo Niinemets & Karl J. Niklas & Yan Li & Jiangbo Xie & Ian J. Wright, 2022. "Leaf water content contributes to global leaf trait relationships," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Zakharova, L. & Meyer, K.M. & Seifan, M., 2019. "Trait-based modelling in ecology: A review of two decades of research," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 407(C), pages 1-1.

    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:plo:pone00:0001932. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.