Responses of intraspecific metabolic scaling to temperature and activity differ between water- and air-breathing ectothermic vertebrates.

Guillermo García-Gómez, Andrew G Hirst, Matthew Spencer, David Atkinson

Ecology letters 2024 Feb

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Metabolism underpins all life-sustaining processes and varies profoundly with body size, temperature and locomotor activity. A current theory explains some of the size-dependence of metabolic rate (its mass exponent, b) through changes in metabolic level (L). We propose two predictive advances that: (a) combine the above theory with the evolved avoidance of oxygen limitation in water-breathers experiencing warming, and (b) quantify the overall magnitude of combined temperatures and degrees of locomotion on metabolic scaling across air- and water-breathers. We use intraspecific metabolic scaling responses to temperature (523 regressions) and activity (281 regressions) in diverse ectothermic vertebrates (fish, reptiles and amphibians) to show that b decreases with temperature-increased L in water-breathers, supporting surface area-related avoidance of oxygen limitation, whereas b increases with activity-increased L in air-breathers, following volume-related influences. This new theoretical integration quantitatively incorporates different influences (warming, locomotion) and respiration modes (aquatic, terrestrial) on animal energetics. © 2024 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Citation

Guillermo García-Gómez, Andrew G Hirst, Matthew Spencer, David Atkinson. Responses of intraspecific metabolic scaling to temperature and activity differ between water- and air-breathing ectothermic vertebrates. Ecology letters. 2024 Feb;27(2):e14389