Factors affecting metabolic rate: Size

Data for 47 species of birds

Allometric equation
Daily energy expenditure Metabolic Rate = a(body mass)b
Basal metabolic rate Or, log[metabolic rate] = log[a] + b(log[body mass])

Because b < 1.0, larger species need less energy

per day, relative to their body mass, than do
smaller species.

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Factors affecting metabolic rate: Life Style
Same size, but different metabolic rate, due to variation in activities

 A homoiotherm (maintain a constant high body

temperature) needs about 25- 30 times as much energy
as poikilotherm of the same size (body mass).

 Poikiloterms have metabolic rate some 8 -10 times

higher than unicellular organisms of the same size.

 Considerable scatter about the three lines. Mammals

that feed on vertebrates have high BMR relative to other
mammals. Lifestyle or Phylogeny (?)

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Other features affected by size

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Energy budgets
 What happens to the energy that an organism ingests?

 Organisms take in food so that the energy and nutrients can be channeled towards the production
of offspring.

 Juvenile individuals spends some of their energy to growth

 Assimilation Efficiency (Percentage of energy that an organism ingests that is assimilated rather than
egested) [carnivores 90%, panda 20%]

 Growth Efficiency ( the percentage of the energy assimilated that an organism diverts to growth)
Juvenile pigs have growth efficiency of 20%, very high for farm animals and economic for farmers
dealing with pig meat. Growth efficiency is highest when no energy is spent on thermoregulation and
movement.

Keep the pigs warm and in almost darkness- pigs move less in dark. 4
Complete Energy budgets

C = P + R + Ex + U + F
C = energy ingested
P = Pg (growth) + Pr (reproduction)
R = respiratory or metabolic loss
Ex = Energy loss associated with ecdysis
U = Energy loss due to excretory products
F = Energy passed through the gut as faeces.

(in case of Idotea Baltica isopod)

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Energy budgets of annual plants

Allocation of dry weight to different

structures throughout the life cycles