Melanie E. Moses* and James H. Brown Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA *Correspondence: Tel.: +1 505 277 2686. Fax: +1 505 277 0304. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The flux of energy and materials constrains all organisms, and allometric relationships between rates of energy consumption and other biological rates are manif...

Intraspecific allometric (scaling) relationships for metabolism, which have received little examination compared to interspecific relationships, reflect a complex interplay of organogenesis, growth, and shifting physiologies. In this study of the silkworm Bombyx mori, we hypothesized that allometric relationships for metabolism both across all developmental stages and within each stage would no...

Changing environmental conditions have the potential to alter allometric relationships between plant parts, possibly leading to ecosystem-level feedbacks. We quantified allometric shifts in field-grown loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) in response to altered resource availability based on data from multiple harvests to correct for size-related changes in biomass partitioning. A replicated factoria...

The allometric method, which often is attributed to Julian Huxley, entails fitting a straight line to logarithmic transformations of the original bivariate data and then back-transforming the resulting equation to form a power function in the arithmetic scale. Development of the technique was strongly influenced by Huxley's own research on growth by the enlarged 'crusher' claw in male fiddler c...

Understanding the role of the developmental pathways in shaping phenotypic diversity allows appreciating in full the processes influencing and constraining morphological change. Podarcis lizards demonstrate extraordinary morphological variability that likely originated in short evolutionary time. Using geometric morphometrics and a broad suite of statistical tests, we explored the role of devel...

The effect of commercial selection on the growth, efficiency, and yield of broilers was studied using 2 University of Alberta Meat Control strains unselected since 1957 and 1978, and a commercial Ross 308 strain (2005). Mixed-sex chicks (n = 180 per strain) were placed into 4 replicate pens per strain, and grown on a current nutritional program to 56 d of age. Weekly front and side profile phot...

Differential scaling of musculoskeletal traits leads to differences in performance across ontogeny and ultimately determines patterns of resource use during development. Because musculoskeletal growth of the feeding system facilitates high bite-force generation necessary to overcome the physical constraints of consuming more durable prey, durophagous taxa are well suited for investigations of t...

Length-weight relationship and condition factor were estimated in seven fish species, including Barbus cyri, Capoeta gracilis, Alburnoides eichwaldii, Pseudorasbora parva, Ponticola cyrius, Cobitis keyvani and Acanthalburnus microlepis from Shahrbijar River, Guilan Province, Iran. A total of 416 specimens ranging from 18 to 135 mm in total length and from 0.06 to 19.25 g in total weight were co...

As increasing levels of nitrogen (N) deposition impact many terrestrial ecosystems, understanding the potential effects of higher N availability is critical for forecasting tree carbon allocation patterns and thus future forest productivity. Most regional estimates of forest biomass apply allometric equations, with parameters estimated from a limited number of studies, to forest inventory data ...