A Sceptics View: “Kleiber’s Law” or the “3/4 Rule” is neither a Law nor a Rule but Rather an Empirical Approximation

Hulbert, A. J.

doi:10.3390/systems2020186

Cited by 58 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Others claim that heterogeneous contingent factors are importantly involved in determining both the slopes and elevations of metabolic scaling relationships [10,16,23,32,[50][51][52]. As a point of departure for my discussion about the contingency versus constraints debate, I focus on published data showing that an extrinsic factor, namely ambient temperature, not only significantly affects the scaling of metabolic rate, but also does so in fundamentally different ways in ectothermic and endothermic animals.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, like the MTE, cell-size theory predicts that changing temperature should affect the elevation of metabolic scaling relationships, but not their slopes (but see Section 3.2.2), which again is contradicted by the results described in this study. Most other models focused on the differential scaling of various resource-demanding processes and tissues or organs with different metabolic rates (see e.g., [10,38,52]) have yet to consider how ambient temperature may affect metabolic scaling slopes (but see discussion of dynamic energy budget theory below). Furthermore, a recent study has shown that temperature acclimation does not affect the size and metabolic rate of various organs of the prawn Macrobrachium tolmerum [78].…”

Section: Implications Of Results For Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, in the 1930s, animal scientists such as Kleiber and Brody discovered that the interspecific scaling of basal (resting) metabolic rate in mammals more closely matched a 3/4-power relationship than a 2/3-power relationship [17,18]. In 1960, Hemmingsen [19] claim that heterogeneous contingent factors are importantly involved in determining both the slopes and elevations of metabolic scaling relationships [10,16,23,32,[50][51][52].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Contingency versus Constraints on the Body-Mass Scaling of Metabolic Rate

Glazier

2018

Challenges

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I illustrate the effects of both contingency and constraints on the body-mass scaling of metabolic rate by analyzing the significantly different influences of ambient temperature (T a ) on metabolic scaling in ectothermic versus endothermic animals. Interspecific comparisons show that increasing T a results in decreasing metabolic scaling slopes in ectotherms, but increasing slopes in endotherms, a pattern uniquely predicted by the metabolic-level boundaries hypothesis, as amended to include effects of the scaling of thermal conductance in endotherms outside their thermoneutral zone. No other published theoretical model explicitly predicts this striking variation in metabolic scaling, which I explain in terms of contingent effects of T a and thermoregulatory strategy in the context of physical and geometric constraints related to the scaling of surface area, volume, and heat flow across surfaces. My analysis shows that theoretical models focused on an ideal 3/4-power law, as explained by a single universally applicable mechanism, are clearly inadequate for explaining the diversity and environmental sensitivity of metabolic scaling. An important challenge is to develop a theory of metabolic scaling that recognizes the contingent effects of multiple mechanisms that are modulated by several extrinsic and intrinsic factors within specified constraints.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications Of Results For Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Contingency versus Constraints on the Body-Mass Scaling of Metabolic Rate

Glazier

2018

Challenges

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“…For example, over 150 years ago, Regnault and Reiset [166] observed that the metabolic rates of rabbits and dogs are unchanged by exposure to atmospheric oxygen levels 2-3 times above normal [167]. In the mid-1900s, several investigators also discounted the effects of oxygen supply limits on metabolic scaling because excised tissues continue to show allometric metabolic scaling in the presence of high oxygen levels (e.g., [168,169]).…”

Section: Resource-transport Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rediscovering and Reviving Old Observations and Explanations of Metabolic Scaling in Living Systems

Glazier

2018

Systems

112

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Why the rate of metabolism varies (scales) in regular, but diverse ways with body size is a perennial, incompletely resolved question in biology. In this article, I discuss several examples of the recent rediscovery and (or) revival of specific metabolic scaling relationships and explanations for them previously published during the nearly 200-year history of allometric studies. I carry out this discussion in the context of the four major modal mechanisms highlighted by the contextual multimodal theory (CMT) that I published in this journal four years ago. These mechanisms include metabolically important processes and their effects that relate to surface area, resource transport, system (body) composition, and resource demand. In so doing, I show that no one mechanism can completely explain the broad diversity of metabolic scaling relationships that exists. Multi-mechanistic models are required, several of which I discuss. Successfully developing a truly general theory of biological scaling requires the consideration of multiple hypotheses, causal mechanisms and scaling relationships, and their integration in a context-dependent way. A full awareness of the rich history of allometric studies, an openness to multiple perspectives, and incisive experimental and comparative tests can help this important quest.

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“…46,47 Future research will either confirm or reject these propositions, but it is clear that many more detailed measurements of metabolic rates are required and that current theoretical attempts to explain mechanistically why metabolic rates change with increasing body size are inadequate. [48][49][50][51][52][53] Finally, we want to stress that the exact regulatory mechanisms of O 2 -dependent Figure 8. Summary of organ-and cell respiration with reference to the production/release of Adenosine-3-Phosphate (ATP) by mitochondria.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kleiber's Law: How theFire of Lifeignited debate, fueled theory, and neglected plants as model organisms

Niklas¹,

Kutschera

2015

Plant Signaling & Behavior

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Size is a key feature of any organism since it influences the rate at which resources are consumed and thus affects metabolic rates. In the 1930s, size-dependent relationships were codified as "allometry" and it was shown that most of these could be quantified using the slopes of log-log plots of any 2 variables of interest. During the decades that followed, physiologists explored how animal respiration rates varied as a function of body size across taxa. The expectation was that rates would scale as the 2/3 power of body size as a reflection of the Euclidean relationship between surface area and volume. However, the work of Max Kleiber (1893Kleiber ( -1976 and others revealed that animal respiration rates apparently scale more closely as the 3/4 power of body size. This phenomenology, which is called "Kleiber's Law," has been described for a broad range of organisms, including some algae and plants. It has also been severely criticized on theoretical and empirical grounds. Here, we review the history of the analysis of metabolism, which originated with the works of Antoine L. Lavoisier (1743-1794) and Julius Sachs (1832-1897), and culminated in Kleiber's book The Fire of Life (1961; 2. ed. 1975). We then evaluate some of the criticisms that have been leveled against Kleiber's Law and some examples of the theories that have tried to explain it. We revive the speculation that intracellular exo-and endocytotic processes are resource delivery-systems, analogous to the supercellular systems in multicellular organisms. Finally, we present data that cast doubt on the existence of a single scaling relationship between growth and body size in plants.

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A Sceptics View: “Kleiber’s Law” or the “3/4 Rule” is neither a Law nor a Rule but Rather an Empirical Approximation

Cited by 58 publications

References 43 publications

Effects of Contingency versus Constraints on the Body-Mass Scaling of Metabolic Rate

Effects of Contingency versus Constraints on the Body-Mass Scaling of Metabolic Rate

Rediscovering and Reviving Old Observations and Explanations of Metabolic Scaling in Living Systems

Kleiber's Law: How theFire of Lifeignited debate, fueled theory, and neglected plants as model organisms

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