Applications and implications of ecological energetics

Sean Tomlinson, Sophie Arnall, A.J. Munn, Don Bradshaw, Shane Maloney, Kingsley Dixon, Raphael Didham

Research output: Contribution to journalReview article

101 Citations (Scopus)
966 Downloads (Pure)

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. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)280-290
JournalTrends in Ecology and Evolution
Volume29
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

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