van der Meer Jaap
Department of Marine Ecology and Evolution, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg (Texel), the Netherlands.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2006 Mar;21(3):136-40. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2005.11.004. Epub 2005 Nov 16.
The Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) and the earlier theory of Dynamic Energy Budgets (DEB) are both founded on simple mechanistic descriptions of how individual organisms take up and use energy and material. Such descriptions should enable predictions to be made of pools and flows of energy and matter in populations, communities and ecosystems. MTE builds on the idea that the transport of resources through a fractal-like branching network causes the supply rate to cells to scale as a (3/4) power of body mass, whereas DEB is based on the concept that rates of basic physiological processes are proportional to surface area or to body volume. Here, I critically compare both theories, highlight similarities and inconsistencies, and show where the approaches deviate. I argue that, to arrive at a sound theoretical basis of the energy budget of individual organisms, both views should be tested fully, but only after inconsistencies have been addressed.
生态代谢理论（MTE）和早期的动态能量收支理论（DEB）均建立在对个体生物如何摄取和利用能量及物质的简单机制描述之上。此类描述应能对种群、群落和生态系统中能量和物质的存量及流动进行预测。MTE基于这样一种观点，即资源通过类似分形的分支网络进行传输，导致细胞的供应速率按体重的(3/4)次幂缩放，而DEB则基于基本生理过程的速率与表面积或体积成正比这一概念。在此，我对这两种理论进行批判性比较，突出它们的异同之处，并指出两种方法的差异所在。我认为，要获得个体生物能量收支的坚实理论基础，两种观点都应得到充分检验，但前提是要先解决其中的不一致之处。
