The role of food chain balance and common nutritional environment in interspecific allometric scaling of unicellular organisms
Year: 2016
Type: preprint
Abstract: One of the major characteristics of living organisms is metabolic rate - amount of energy produced per unit time. When the size of organisms increases, the metabolic rate increases slower than organisms' mass. This effect is called allometric scaling. It has important implications for the individual and population organismal development. Here, we study the causes of this phenomenon considering metabolic properties of unicellular organisms (Amoeba Proteus, fission yeast S. pombe, E. coli, B. subtilis, Staphylococcus). We found that the metabolic properties of unicellular organisms are defined by two primary factors. One is the need to acquire nutrients through the surface in a common nutritional environment, which forms the base part of 2/3 of an allometric exponent. The other factor is a regular increase of nutrient influx per unit surface, when organisms' mass increases. This is a manifestation of metabolic advantage, which bigger organisms need to have in order to support their metabolic requirements. On the other hand, this advantage cannot be too strong, which could lead to destruction of species, organisms feed on or compete for nutrients within the food chain. Accounting for this regular increase of nutrient influx, we obtained allometric exponents and their range close to experimental values. This supports an argument that the metabolic properties of living organisms, and interspecific allometric scaling in particular, indeed, are defined by nutrient acquisition through the surface and a regular increase of nutrient influx per unit surface, in a way that preserves a dynamic balance between populations within the food chain.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Yuri K. Shestopaloff
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2588513124