Back

Intraspecific scaling of home range size and its bioenergetic dependence

Byrnes, E. E.; Hounslow, J. L.; Heim, V.; White, C. E.; Smukall, M. J.; Beatty, S. J.; Gleiss, A. C.

2023-06-11 ecology
10.1101/2023.06.08.544203 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Home range size and metabolic rate of animals are expected to scale with body mass at similar rates; with home ranges expanding to meet increased metabolic requirements. This expectation has widely been tested using lab-derived estimates of basal metabolic rate as proxies for field energy requirements, however, it is unclear if existing theory aligns with patterns of home range scaling observed in the field. Here, we conduct the first direct field test of the relationship between home range and metabolic rate allometry. Using acoustic telemetry, we simultaneously measured the individual home range size and field metabolic rate of lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) spanning one order of magnitude in body mass. Although scaling rates of field metabolic rate were consistent with standard metabolic rate, home range size scaled at shallower rates than metabolic rates. This is evidence for strong top-down controls on home range scaling rates, likely a result of predation pressure placing constraints on home range expansions. Consequently, direct resource competition can lead to decreased home range scaling rates. We highlight inconsistencies with theory on the effects of population density and competition on home range scaling and propose that the influence of diverse types of competition should be examined.

Matching journals

The top 10 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.