Predicting natural mortality rates of plants and animals

McCoy, Michael; Gillooly, James F.

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01190.x

Cited by 152 publications

(180 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…4; 95% CI, 0.27-0.45; r 2 = 0.57, P < 10 −5 ), significantly higher than the predicted value of 0.25. However, the scaling exponents for whole colonies and unitary insects, respectively, were 0.24 (95% CI, 0.14-0.34; r 2 = 0.39, P < 10 −5 ) and 0.24 (95% CI, 0.01-0.47; r 2 = 0.26, P < 4 × 10 −2 ), which are nearly identical to the predicted value and to those observed in other taxonomic groups (21,22,28). Thus, the steeper exponent of 0.36 for the combined data appears to arise from the 4-to 5-fold higher intercept observed for colonies.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Normalizing the data in this manner, as described in Brown et al (21) and following convention (23,28,31), normalizes for the previously established effects of temperature on metabolism in nonflying species and for the previously established, empirically observed differences in body mass-corrected metabolic rates among taxa. Note that we did not correct the metabolic rates of flying species for temperature as all species considered here had nest temperatures in the range of 30-32°C.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Energetic basis of colonial living in social insects

Hou

Kaspari

Zanden

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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119

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Understanding the ecology and evolution of insect societies requires greater knowledge of how sociality affects the performance of whole colonies. Metabolic scaling theory, based largely on the body mass scaling of metabolic rate, has successfully predicted many aspects of the physiology and life history of individual (or unitary) organisms. Here we show, using a diverse set of social insect species, that this same theory predicts the size dependence of basic features of the physiology (i.e., metabolic rate, reproductive allocation) and life history (i.e., survival, growth, and reproduction) of whole colonies. The similarity in the size dependence of these features in unitary organisms and whole colonies points to commonalities in functional organization. Thus, it raises an important question of how such evolutionary convergence could arise through the process of natural selection.allometry | colony | scaling | metabolism | metabolic theory of ecology M ulticellularity and sociality represent two of life's major evolutionary innovations (1). Both are examples of how individual modules-cells and individuals-can cooperate to enhance evolutionary fitness. In the case of multicellularity, the emergence of such cooperation is relatively easy to explain in the context of natural selection given that all cells are governed by a single, shared genome. Sociality in general, and altruism in particular, is more difficult to explain in this context given that social groups often consist of multiple genotypes with varying degrees of genetic relatedness. In particular, understanding the cooperation observed in eusocial insects-ants, bees, wasps, and termites whose workers forgo reproduction to care for the young of their queens-has presented a paradox given the potential for genetic conflicts to cooperation. However, combining Hamilton's concept of inclusive fitness (2) with the genetics of haplodiploidy has gone some way toward resolving this apparent paradox in the evolution of eusociality (3).However, simply because cooperation among multicellular individuals or members of eusocial colonies can arise through natural selection does not mean it will endure in nature. For this, we must better understand how cooperation affects the collective performance of those in the group. One key metric of performance is an organism's ability to harvest, store, and transform energy to produce offspring (4). As Boltzmann (1905, cited in ref.5, p. 6) pointed out, "[The] struggle for existence is a struggle for free energy available for work," and Lotka (6) wrote, "In the struggle for existence, the advantage must go to those organisms whose energy-capturing devices are most efficient in directing available energy into channels favorable to the preservation of the species." For multicellular organisms, metabolic scaling theory has helped to quantify how changes in body size affect the energy use of species (7,8). The theory and empirical work on this subject have shown that there are economies of scale related to energy use such that cells...

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energetic basis of colonial living in social insects

Hou

Kaspari

Zanden

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

119

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“…Reducing energy expenditure by reducing basal metabolic rate has also been proposed as a way to increase longevity [20,21], body size and longevity being negatively correlated with basal metabolic rate in endotherms even if there are quite significant differences between vertebrate classes ( [12]; see electronic supplementary material). Compared with other vertebrates, salamanders have reduced activity and lower metabolism [22], which might have facilitated their colonization of subterranean habitats.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme lifespan of the human fish ( Proteus anguinus ): a challenge for ageing mechanisms

et al. 2010

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These authors contributed equally to this work.Theories of extreme lifespan evolution in vertebrates commonly implicate large size and predator-free environments together with physiological characteristics like low metabolism and high protection against oxidative damages. Here, we show that the 'human fish' (olm, Proteus anguinus), a small cave salamander (weighing 15 -20 g), has evolved an extreme lifehistory strategy with a predicted maximum lifespan of over 100 years, an adult average lifespan of 68.5 years, an age at sexual maturity of 15.6 years and lays, on average, 35 eggs every 12.5 years. Surprisingly, neither its basal metabolism nor antioxidant activities explain why this animal sits as an outlier in the amphibian size/longevity relationship. This species thus raises questions regarding ageing processes and constitutes a promising model for discovering mechanisms preventing senescence in vertebrates.

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“…Previous metaanalysis indicates that the phytoplankton total mortality rate (including both intrinsic and extrinsic mortality) shows a −1/4 power-law relationship between size-specific mortality and body size (McCoy and Gillooly, 2008). Given that the grazing mortality is independent of body size, we suggest that the −1/4 scaling of total mortality versus body size of phytoplankton is to a large extent determined by the intrinsic processes.…”

Section: Scaling Of Size-specific Growth Rates (µ) and Mortality (M)mentioning

confidence: 91%

“…However, the relationship between extrinsic mortality and body size is not well studied. Interestingly, McCoy and Gillooly (2008) compiled comprehensive empirical data and reported that the total mortality (i.e. the sum of both intrinsic and extrinsic mortality) of organisms also scales with body size with a −1/4 exponent, which suggests that either extrinsic mortality also scales with body size with a −1/4 exponent or extrinsic mortality is independent of body size.…”

Section: F H Chang Et Al: Scaling Of Growth Rate and Mortalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling of growth rate and mortality with size and its consequence on size spectra of natural microphytoplankton assemblages in the East China Sea

et al. 2013

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Allometric scaling of body size versus growth rate and mortality has been suggested to be a universal macroecological pattern, as described by the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE). However, whether such scaling generally holds in natural assemblages remains debated. Here, we test the hypothesis that the size-specific growth rate and grazing mortality scale with the body size with an exponent of −1/4 after temperature correction, as MTE predicts. To do so, we couple a dilution experiment with the FlowCAM imaging system to obtain size-specific growth rates and grazing mortality of natural microphytoplankton assemblages in the East China Sea. This novel approach allows us to achieve highly resolved size-specific measurements that would be very difficult to obtain in traditional size-fractionated measurements using filters. Our results do not support the MTE prediction. On average, the size-specific growth rates and grazing mortality scale almost isometrically with body size (with scaling exponent ∼0.1). However, this finding contains high uncertainty, as the size-scaling exponent varies substantially among assemblages. The fact that size-scaling exponent varies among assemblages prompts us to further investigate how the variation of size-specific growth rate and grazing mortality can interact to determine the microphytoplankton size structure, described by normalized biomass size spectrum (NBSS), among assemblages. We test whether the variation of microphytoplankton NBSS slopes is determined by (1) differential grazing mortality of small versus large individuals, (2) differential growth rate of small versus large individuals, or (3) combinations of these scenarios. Our results indicate that the ratio of the grazing mortality of the large size category to that of the small size category best explains the variation of NBSS slopes across environments, suggesting that higher grazing mortality of large microphytoplankton may release the small phytoplankton from grazing, which in turn leads to a steeper NBSS slope. This study contributes to understanding the relative importance of bottom-up versus top-down control in shaping microphytoplankton size structure

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Predicting natural mortality rates of plants and animals

Cited by 152 publications

References 53 publications

Energetic basis of colonial living in social insects

Energetic basis of colonial living in social insects

Extreme lifespan of the human fish ( Proteus anguinus ): a challenge for ageing mechanisms

Scaling of growth rate and mortality with size and its consequence on size spectra of natural microphytoplankton assemblages in the East China Sea

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