Blueweiss L, Fox H, Kudzma V, Nakashima D, Peters R, Sams S
Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 McGregor Avenue, H3A 1B1, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Oecologia. 1978 Jan;37(2):257-272. doi: 10.1007/BF00344996.
Patterns in life history phenomena may be demonstrated by examining wide ranges of body weight. Positive relationships exist between adult body size and the clutch size of poikilotherms, litter weight, neonate weight life span, maturation time and, for homeotherms at least, brood or gestation time. The complex of these factors reduces r in larger animals or, in more physiological terms, r is set by individual growth rate. Comparison of neonatal production with ingestion and assimilation suggests that larger mammals put proportionately less effort into reproduction. Declining parental investment and longer development times would result if neonatal weight is scaled allometrically to adult weight and neonatal growth rate to neonatal weight. Body size relations represent general ecological theries and therefore hold considerable promise in the development of predictive ecology.
通过研究广泛的体重范围，可以揭示生活史现象中的模式。变温动物的成体大小与窝卵数、产仔重量、新生幼体重量、寿命、成熟时间之间存在正相关关系，至少对于恒温动物而言，还与育雏或妊娠期存在正相关关系。这些因素的综合作用降低了大型动物的内禀增长率，或者用更生理学的术语来说，内禀增长率是由个体生长率决定的。将新生幼体产量与摄食和同化进行比较表明，体型较大的哺乳动物在繁殖上投入的精力相对较少。如果新生幼体体重相对于成体体重呈异速生长，且新生幼体生长率相对于新生幼体体重呈异速生长，那么亲代投资减少和发育时间延长将会出现。体型关系代表了一般的生态理论，因此在预测生态学的发展中具有很大的前景。
