Unravelling why metabolic rate scales with body size

The rate at which organisms expend energy and require food and oxygen – their metabolic rate – changes (scales) with body size, but usually out of proportion; for a given increase in size, metabolic rate increases less. Why this is so – and why there appears to be variation in how steep this scaling relationship is among species and taxonomic levels – are some of the biggest unanswered questions in biology. The overall aim of my research programme is to answer these fundamentally important questions, with a focus on metabolic scaling of animals. In this project, I will use comparative studies and multi-generational artificial selection experiments, in combination with genetic analyses, to unravel the mechanistic basis for why and how metabolic rate scales with body size.

Funding
The project is funded by a Sapere Aude Research Leader grant (1054-00020B) from the Independent Research Fund Denmark.