Abstract
The influential metabolic theory of ecology proposes that metabolic rate determines growth and ecological processes in a universal, size-dependent manner, scaling with body mass0.75. Conversely, newer life-history-optimisation theory suggests that metabolic scaling varies due to evolutionary optimisation of energy allocation, predicting negative correlation between metabolic rate and growth. However, metabolic scaling has almost exclusively been investigated across individuals or species, not within individuals through ontogeny. By measuring body mass and metabolic rate longitudinally an average 6.6 times within the same 389 individuals from seven fish species, we find that within-individual ontogenetic scaling of standard (maintenance) metabolic rate correlates positively with scaling of growth, while scaling of aerobic scope correlates negatively. Accelerating ontogenetic growth thus appears to come at a cost of reduced metabolic scope to support functions beyond maintenance. Our results suggest that underappreciated variation in growth can explain why metabolic scaling varies, challenging dogmatic ¾-power scaling and life-history-optimisation theory.
Data availability
Both the data used in the article and the code used to analyse it and make the figures are available in a figshare repository84.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Douglas S. Glazier and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this article. We would also like to thank the many technicians, animal care takers, and other lab helpers who enabled us to collect all the data in this article. This work was supported by research grants to TN from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (1054-00020B) and Villum Fonden (40713), as well as funding granted to SCM and RB (Recherche et Innovation Partenariat Public Privé pour Preuve de concept (RIP4): Raising Nemo - 5637/MAF/REC).
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A. Rosén and T.N. conceptualised and did the overall design. A. Rosén, A.H.A., Z.S., J.W.E., A.F.M., S.R. and T.N. collected the data. R.B., S.C.M. and T.N. provided equipment and facilities. A. Rosén, R.B., S.C.M. and T.N. provided supervision. A. Rosén, Z.S., J.W.E., A.F.M., S.R. and T.N. data analyses. A. Rosén wrote the initial draft while Z.S., S.R., R.B., S.C.M. and T.N. provided critical feedback. Revisions were made by A. Rosén with feedback from A.H.A. and T.N. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Rosén, A., Andreassen, A.H., Storm, Z. et al. Co-variation and trade-offs in ontogenetic scaling of growth and metabolic rates in teleost fish. Commun Biol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09588-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09588-w
