title: Applications and implications of ecological energetics.
abstract: The ecological processes that are crucial to an animal's growth, survival, and reproductive fitness have energetic costs. The imperative for an animal to meet these costs within the energetic constraints of the environment drives many aspects of animal ecology and evolution, yet has largely been overlooked in traditional ecological paradigms. The field of 'ecological energetics' is bringing comparative physiology out of the laboratory and, for the first time, is becoming broadly accessible to field ecologists addressing real-world questions at many spatial and temporal scales. In an era of unprecedented global environmental challenges, ecological energetics opens up the tantalising prospect of a more predictive, mechanistic understanding of the drivers of threatened species decline, delivering process-based modelling approaches to natural resource management.
authors.affiliation: School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia; Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, Fraser Avenue, West Perth 6005, Australia. Electronic address: Sean.Tomlinson@bgpa.wa.gov.au.
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomlinson
authors.affiliation: School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Sophie G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Arnall
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2522, Australia.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Munn
authors.affiliation: School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: S Don
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Bradshaw
authors.affiliation: School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Shane K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Maloney
authors.affiliation: Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, Fraser Avenue, West Perth 6005, Australia; School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Kingsley W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.affiliation: School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia; CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, Underwood Avenue, Floreat WA 6014, Australia.
authors.forename: Raphael K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Didham
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D004777:Environment; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010828:Physiology, Comparative