Energetic uncoupling of individual and species ranges

The use of energy is universal to all life forms and all levels of biological organisation, potentially linking processes operating at variable scales. Individual and species ranges are both energetically constrained, yet divergent metabolic limitations at both scales might have driven uncoupling of these individual and species traits. We analyzed comparative energetic and ranging data to unravel the mechanistic basis of the uncoupling between individual and species range sizes observed among mammalian species. Our results demonstrate that energetic traits predict both range sizes but that it operated divergently between the scales. High level of basal, or maintenance, metabolism constrained individual but at the same time promotes wide species ranges. High aerobic capacity, maximum metabolic rate, promotes wide individual ranges but little less influence on species range size. These results suggest that an energetic allocation trade-off might uncouple individual and species level traits, leading to low covariation between home and species range sizes. Important functional traits, such as basal and maximum metabolic rates, have potential to unravel mechanisms operating at different levels of biological organisation, and to expose links between energy dependent processes at different scales. p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-US }p.cjk { font-family: "Noto Sans CJK SC"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: zh-CN }p.ctl { font-family: "Lohit Devanagari"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }a:link { color: #0563c1; text-decoration: underline }