title: Temporal patterns of energy equivalence in temperate soil invertebrates.
abstract: The question whether total population energy use is invariant to species body size (the energy equivalence hypothesis) is central to metabolic ecology and continues to be controversial. While recent comparative field work and meta-analyses pointed to systematic deviations of the underlying allometric scaling laws from predictions of metabolic theory none of these studies included the variability of metabolic scaling in ecological time. Here we used extensive data on the invertebrate soil fauna of Kampinos National Park (Poland) obtained from six consecutive quantitative sampling seasons to show that phylogenetically corrected species density-body weight and population energy use-body weight relationships across all soil fauna species and within trophic groups and body weight classes were highly variable in time. On average, population energy use tended to increase with species body weight in decomposers and phytophages, but not in predators. Despite these trends, our data do not exclude the possibility that energy equivalence marks the central tendency of energy use in the edaphon. Our results highlight the need for long-term studies on energy use to unequivocally assess predictions of metabolic theory.
authors.affiliation: Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland, ulrichw@umk.pl.
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ulrich
authors.forename: Alexia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoste-Danyłow
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Faleńczyk-Koziróg
authors.forename: Izabela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hajdamowicz
authors.forename: Krassimira
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ilieva-Makulec
authors.forename: Izabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Olejniczak
authors.forename: Marzena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stańska
authors.forename: Jolanta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wytwer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size / Q000502:physiology; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010802:Phylogeny; D011044:Poland; D011156:Population Density; D012621:Seasons; D012987:Soil; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D012987:Soil