Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 377, Issue 6608, Pages 834-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.abm7649
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Funding
- Australian Research Council [DP180103925, DP220103553]
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Organisms use energy for growth and reproduction, and metabolism, growth, and reproduction are tightly linked, determining fitness. Our model predicts that anthropogenic change will have detrimental effects on the metabolism, growth, and reproduction of animals.
Organisms use energy to grow and reproduce, so the processes of energy metabolism and biological production should be tightly bound. On the basis of this tenet, we developed and tested a new theory that predicts the relationships among three fundamental aspects of life: metabolic rate, growth, and reproduction. We show that the optimization of these processes yields the observed allometries of metazoan life, particularly metabolic scaling. We conclude that metabolism, growth, and reproduction are inextricably linked; that together they determine fitness; and, in contrast to longstanding dogma, that no single component drives another. Our model predicts that anthropogenic change will cause animals to evolve decreased scaling exponents of metabolism, increased growth rates, and reduced lifetime reproductive outputs, with worrying consequences for the replenishment of future populations.
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