Analyses of Developmental Rate Isomorphy in Ectotherms: Introducing the Dirichlet Regression.

ABSTRACT: Temperature drives development in insects and other ectotherms because their metabolic rate and growth depends directly on thermal conditions. However, relative durations of successive ontogenetic stages often remain nearly constant across a substantial range of temperatures. This pattern, termed 'developmental rate isomorphy' (DRI) in insects, appears to be widespread and reported departures from DRI are generally very small. We show that these conclusions may be due to the caveats hidden in the statistical methods currently used to study DRI. Because the DRI concept is inherently based on proportional data, we propose that Dirichlet regression applied to individual-level data is an appropriate statistical method to critically assess DRI. As a case study we analyze data on five aquatic an

SUBMITTER: Boukal DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4482627 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature