Data from: Ontogenetic and interspecific metabolic scaling in insects

Design constraints imposed by increasing size cause metabolic rate in animals to increase more slowly than mass. This ubiquitous biological phenomenon is referred to as metabolic scaling. However, mechanistic explanations for interspecific metabolic scaling do not apply to ontogenetic size changes within a species, implying different mechanisms for scaling phenomena. Here, we show that the dynamic energy budget theory approach of compartmentalizing biomass into reserve and structural components provides a unified framework for understanding ontogenetic and interspecific metabolic scaling. We formulate the theory for insects and show that it can account for ontogenetic metabolic scaling during the embryonic and larval phases, as well as the U-shaped respiration curve during pupation. After correcting for the predicted ontogenetic scaling effects, which we show to follow universal curves, the scaling of respiration between species is approximated by a three-quarters power law, supporting past empirical studies on insect metabolic scaling and our theoretical predictions. The ability to explain ontogenetic and interspecific metabolic scaling effects under one consistent framework suggests that the partitioning of biomass into reserve and structure is a necessary foundation to a general metabolic theory.体型增大所施加的设计约束，会使动物的代谢速率增长幅度慢于体重的增长幅度。这一普遍存在的生物学现象被称为代谢缩放（metabolic scaling）。然而，针对种间代谢缩放的机制性解释，并不适用于同一物种内的个体发育体型变化，这表明两类缩放现象背后的作用机制存在差异。本研究表明，将生物量划分为储备组分与结构组分的动态能量预算理论（dynamic energy budget theory）方法，能够提供一个统一框架，用以解析个体发育与种间两类代谢缩放现象。我们针对昆虫构建了该理论模型，并证明其可以解释胚胎期与幼虫期的个体发育代谢缩放，以及化蛹过程中呈现的U型呼吸曲线。在对已证实符合通用曲线的预测性个体发育缩放效应进行校正后，物种间的呼吸缩放关系可近似为四分之三次方律，这一结果既支持了过往关于昆虫代谢缩放的实证研究，也验证了本研究的理论预测。能够在统一框架下解释个体发育与种间两类代谢缩放效应，这一能力表明，将生物量划分为储备与结构组分，是构建通用代谢理论的必要基础。