Body size and temperature are fundamental drivers of ecological processes because they determine metabolic rates at the individual level. Whether these drivers act independently on individual-level metabolic rates remains uncertain. Most studies of intraspecific scaling of unitary organisms must rely on preexisting differences in size to examine its relationship with metabolic rate, thereby potentially confounding size-correlated traits (e.g., age, nutrition) with size, which can affect metabolic rate...
In this response we have incorporated data on gastropod and seaweed biodiversity referred to by Ávila et al. (2016, Journal of Biogeography, doi:10.1111/jbi.12816) to allow an updated analysis on marine shallow-water biogeography patterns...
Population ecology has classically focused on pairwise species interactions, hindering the description of general patterns and processes of population abundance at large spatial scales. Here we use the metabolic theory of ecology as a framework to formulate and test a model that yields predictions linking population density to the physiological constraints of body size and temperature on individual metabolism, and the ecological constraints of trophic structure and species richness on energy partitioning among species...
The feeding behaviour and diet plasticity of a given species are usually shaped by the relationship between species physiology and the quality and availability of resources in the environment. As such, some species may achieve wide geographical distributions by utilizing multiple resources at different sites within their ranges. We studied the distribution and feeding of *Chaetodon striatus*...
The aim of this study was to understand whether the large-scale biogeographical patterns of the species–area, species–island age and species–isolation relationships associated with marine shallow-water groups in the Atlantic Ocean vary among marine taxa and differ from the biogeographical patterns observed in terrestrial habitats...
At the molecular level, the process of living involves coupled biochemical reactions that result in the uptake and transformation of energy and materials by an organism, yielding biomass to support its growth and reproduction, along with waste products.
Understanding how plants are constructed–i.e., how key size dimensions and the amount of mass invested in different tissues varies among individuals–is essential for modeling plant growth, carbon stocks, and energy fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere. Allocation patterns can differ through ontogeny, but also among coexisting species and among species adapted to different environments...
This study investigates the reef fish community structure of the world's smallest remote tropical island, the St Peter and St Paul's Archipelago, in the equatorial Atlantic. The interplay between isolation, high endemism and low species richness makes the St Peter and St Paul's Archipelago ecologically simpler than larger and highly connected shelf reef systems, making it an important natural laboratory for ecology and biogeography, particularly with respect to the effects of abiotic and biotic factors, and the functional organisation of such a depauperate community...
Top predators have a strong influence on the structure and dynamics of marine ecosystems. These organisms have been largely used as indicators of the effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs). In Brazil, the impact of fisheries on reef species, such as groupers and sea basses, and the importance of local marine reserves in the maintenance of these fish communities are still poorly understood...
The disparity in species richness among evolutionary lineages is one of the oldest and most intriguing issues in evolutionary biology. Although geographical factors have been traditionally thought to promote speciation, recent studies have underscored the importance of ecological interactions as one of the main drivers of diversification. Here, we test if differences in species richness of closely related lineages match predictions based on the concept of density-dependent diversification...