影响食肉目动物能量学的生态因子

在食肉目的62种动物中,体重的变异可以解释基础代谢率86.8%的变化。当栖息基底、食性、生境和纬度等4个因素与体重合起来一起分析,则可以解释基础代谢率98.7%的变化,即这些生态和行为因子可以解释代谢率残差变异的81.1%。身体成分也是影响基础代谢率的另一个因素,可以解释一些大型树栖种类的较低的代谢率。除体重因素外,导致真兽类基础代谢率变异的主要原因是:当生态因素适合时,高水平的能量消耗可以促进动物的高繁殖输出,而动物的某些习性和生存环境则会要求低能量消耗,从而使繁殖率降低。当以科为单元进行分析时,对结果没有影响。生理参数与分类单元之间大多数的相关性反映了生态和行为因素与分类系统之间的一种粗略的相关关系。除非系统学可以反映动物的生态学和行为学,否则系统学不能决定动物适应性特征的状态

Ecological factors influence energetics in the Order Carnivora

The variation of body mass in 62 species of mammals belonging to the Order Carnivora accounts for 86.8% of the variation in their basal rates of metabolism. When four other factors, substrate, food habits, habitat, and latitude, are combined with mass in the analysis, then 98.7% of the total variation in basal rate is accounted for, i.e., these ecological/behavioral factors accounted for 81.1% of the residual variation. Variation in body composition may be another factor influencing basal rate, which may account for the very low basal rates in large arboreal species. The principal mass-independent cause for variation in the basal rate of eutherian mammals is that high rates of energy expenditure, when ecologically feasible, facilitate high reproductive outputs, whereas some habits and environments require low energy expenditures, which lead to low rates of reproduction. Bringing family affiliation into the analysis contributes little to the analysis. Most correlations of physiological parameters with taxonomic affiliation represent crude correlations of ecological and behavioral characteristics with taxonomy. Phylogeny does not determine the states of malleable characters, except as it reflects ecology and behavior.