Discontinuous, biphasic, ontogenetic shifts in the metabolic allometry of aquatic animals?

Abstract

Several investigations in recent years have reported patterns of discontinuous, biphasic, loglinear variation in the metabolic allometry of aquatic animals. These putative shifts in pattern of allometry have been attributed to changes in the primary site for gas exchange from cutaneous to branchial as animals undergo ontogenetic changes in size, shape, and surface area. Because of the important implications of the earlier research with regard to both physiology and evolution, I re-examined data that purportedly support claims of discontinuous, biphasic allometry in oxygen consumption versus body size of American eels (Anguilla rostrata) and spiny lobsters (Sagmariasus verreauxi). I used ANCOVA to fit three different statistical models to each set of logarithmic transformations and then assessed the fits by Akaike's Information Criterion. The observations for both species were described better by a single straight line fitted to the full distribution than by a biphasic model. Eels, lobsters, and other aquatic animals undergo changes in shape and surface area as they grow, but such changes are not necessarily accompanied by changes in the pattern of metabolic allometry.