Summary: Functional
Ecology 2004
18, 257­282
© 2004 British
Ecological Society
257
Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.Oxford, UKFECFunctional Ecology0269-8463British Ecological Society, 20044 2004182Original ArticleQuarter-power scaling in biologyV. M. Savage et al.
FORUM
The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
V. M. SAVAGE,* J. F. GILLOOLY,§ W. H. WOODRUFF,* G. B. WEST,*
A. P. ALLEN,§ B. J. ENQUIST¶ and J. H. BROWN*§
*The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road., Santa Fe, NM 87501 USA, Los Alamos National Laboratory,
Los Alamos, NM 87545 USA, §Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131
USA, and ¶Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Summary
1. Recent studies have resurrected the debate over the value for the allometric scaling
exponent that relates whole-organism metabolic rate to body size. Is it 3
/4 or 2
/3? This
question has been raised before and resolved in favour of 3

Source: Allen, Andrew P. - National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California at Santa Barbara
Gillooly, Jamie - Department of Biology, University of Florida
Grether, Gregory - Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Los Angeles

Collections: Biology and Medicine; Environmental Sciences and Ecology