Publication Date:
2013-02-01
Description:
Arising from S. Pawar, A. I. Dell & V. M. Savage 486, 485-489 10.1038/nature11131(2012)A recent paper by Pawar and colleagues has provided important insights into the consequences of foraging behaviour for food-web dynamics. One notable pattern predicted by their analysis is that consumption rate (c) scales superlinearly (cm(1.16)) with consumer body mass (m) in three-dimensional (3D), but not two-dimensional (2D), foraging spaces. Although we feel that the authors should be applauded for this interesting contribution, we argue that their result is not consistent with established life-history theory. To resolve this contradiction, progress in both fields is probably required, including new empirical studies in which consumption rate, metabolism and dimensionality are examined directly under natural conditions.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Giacomini, Henrique C -- Shuter, Brian J -- de Kerckhove, Derrick T -- Abrams, Peter A -- England -- Nature. 2013 Jan 31;493(7434):E1-2; discussion E2-3. doi: 10.1038/nature11829.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G5, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23364748" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Ecosystem
;
Feeding Behavior/*physiology
;
*Food Chain
;
*Models, Biological
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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