Energy in-equivalence in Australian marsupials: evidence for disruption of the continent's mammal assemblage, or are rules meant to be broken?

ABSTRACT: The energy equivalence rule (EER) is a macroecological hypothesis that posits that total population energy use (PEU) should be independent of species body mass, because population densities and energy metabolisms scale with body mass in a directly inverse manner. However, evidence supporting the EER is equivocal, and the use of basal metabolic rate (BMR) in such studies has been questioned; ecologically-relevant indices like field metabolic rate (FMR) are probably more appropriate. In this regard, Australian marsupials present a novel test for the EER because, unlike eutherians, marsupial BMRs and FMRs scale differently with body mass. Based on either FMR or BMR, Australian marsupial PEU did not obey an EER, and scaled positively with body mass based on ordinary least squares (OLS) regress

SUBMITTER: Munn AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3583869 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature