Is There a Self-Thinning Rule for Animal Populations?
- 1 February 1986
- Vol. 46 (1) , 122-124
- https://doi.org/10.2307/3565389
Abstract
There is a well established (though imperfectly understood) ''-3/2 power rule'' for self-thinning in plant populations, but no comparable rule for animal populations. Here, we search for such a rule applicable to sessile and especially mobile animals. Energetics allometries suggest a ''-4/3 power rule'', but animal self-thinning is seen to depend on organisms-resource interactions in a way not found in plants, because of the peculiar nature of light as a resource. Nevertheless, new and encouraging experimental support for a -4/3 power rule is presented.This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Physiology and Climate ChangeScience, 2008
- The effect of body size on animal abundanceOecologia, 1983
- The allometric interpretation of the self-thinning ruleJournal of Theoretical Biology, 1981
- Demography and Evolution in Plant Populations.Systematic Botany, 1981