SEASONAL ACCLIMATIZATION AND LATITUDINAL COMPENSATION IN METABOLISM - DO THEY EXIST

Argues that the traditional view of latitudinal and seasonal acclimation of metabolic rate to temperature has no useful biological meaning, ignoring the heterogeneous nature of respiratory demand and imposing upon the system an apparent homogeneity that does not in fact exist. The author discusses temperature compensation, which is the maintenance of physiological rate in the face of a change in temperature, then outlines the process involved in respiratory demand in aquatic animals. Temperature is shown to have a major role in influencing seasonal and latitudinal patterns in metabolic rate, but this influence is subtle and difficult to distinguish from other more powerful influences. We should reformulate the energy budget to make explicit the heterogeneous nature of respiratory demand and avoid setting production and respiration as competing sinks. -P.J.Jarvis