Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/30580
Title: Energetic equivalence underpins the size structure of tree and phytoplankton communities
Authors: Perna, A
Adrian, R
Cermeño, P
Gaedke, U
Huete-Ortega, M
White, EP
Yvon-Durocher, G
Keywords: ecology;macroecology
Issue Date: 16-Jan-2019
Publisher: Springer Nature
Citation: Perkins, D.M. et al. (2019) 'Energetic equivalence underpins the size structure of tree and phytoplankton communities', Nature Communications, 10 (1), 255, pp. 1 - 8. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-08039-3.
Abstract: The size structure of autotroph communities – the relative abundance of small vs. large individuals – shapes the functioning of ecosystems. Whether common mechanisms underpin the size structure of unicellular and multicellular autotrophs is, however, unknown. Using a global data compilation, we show that individual body masses in tree and phytoplankton communities follow power-law distributions and that the average exponents of these individual size distributions (ISD) differ. Phytoplankton communities are characterized by an average ISD exponent consistent with three-quarter-power scaling of metabolism with body mass and equivalence in energy use among mass classes. Tree communities deviate from this pattern in a manner consistent with equivalence in energy use among diameter size classes. Our findings suggest that whilst universal metabolic constraints ultimately underlie the emergent size structure of autotroph communities, divergent aspects of body size (volumetric vs. linear dimensions) shape the ecological outcome of metabolic scaling in forest vs. pelagic ecosystems.
Description: Data availability: The summary data used to generate Table 1 and Fig. 2 are available in Supplementary Data 1. The analysis R code, as well as a subset of the analyzed data, is archived in a Figshare public repository (https://figshare.com/s/013fba909417e89fe7e1). The data included in the deposit are specifically intended for the replication of the analysis procedure. Researchers interested in using the data for purposes other than replicating our analyses are advised to obtain the raw data from the original sources cited here, as other useful information from the original data might not be included. A reporting summary for this article is available as a Supplementary Information file.
Supplementary information is available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08039-3#Sec11 .
URI: https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/30580
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08039-3
Other Identifiers: ORCiD: Daniel M. Perkins https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0866-4816
ORCiD: Pedro Cermeño https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3902-3475
ORCiD: Gabriel Yvon-Durocher https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1749-3417
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Appears in Collections:Dept of Life Sciences Research Papers

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