Summary: 1771
Ecology, 85(7), 2004, pp. 1771­1789
2004 by the Ecological Society of America
TOWARD A METABOLIC THEORY OF ECOLOGY
JAMES H. BROWN,1,2,4
with JAMES F. GILLOOLY,1
ANDREW P. ALLEN,1
VAN M. SAVAGE,2,3
AND GEOFFREY B. WEST2,3
1
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 USA
2Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 USA
3Theoretical Division, MS B285, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 USA
JAMES H. BROWN, MacArthur Award Recipient, 2002
Abstract. Metabolism provides a basis for using first principles of physics, chemistry, and
biology to link the biology of individual organisms to the ecology of populations, communities,
and ecosystems. Metabolic rate, the rate at which organisms take up, transform, and expend energy
and materials, is the most fundamental biological rate. We have developed a quantitative theory
for how metabolic rate varies with body size and temperature. Metabolic theory predicts how
metabolic rate, by setting the rates of resource uptake from the environment and resource allocation

Source: Allen, Andrew P. - National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California at Santa Barbara
Brown, James H. - Department of Biology, University of New Mexico
Gillooly, Jamie - Department of Biology, University of Florida

Collections: Biology and Medicine; Environmental Sciences and Ecology