The allometry of growth and reproduction

by Michael J. Reiss

The technique of allometry investigates the effects of size on such variables as food intake, energy requirements, growth rates and age at first reproduction. This book brings together much of what is known about the consequences of size and provides a new and mathematically rigorous framework within which many quantitative predictions are made and tested using published and unpublished data. Both an animal's energy assimilation and its metabolic requirements are strongly related to body weight. Care has been taken to give verbal presentations of all the mathematical conclusions to ensure that the text is widely intelligible. The book will prove of interest to all those involved in evolutionary biology, ecology and the physiology of whole organisms.