Scaling of Oxidative and Glycolytic Enzyme Activities in Fish Muscle

Abstract

We are unaware of any topic within the broad field of comparative physiology in which the ratio of “factual information” to “verified explanatory principles” is as high as it is in the case of scaling relationships. Physiologists of every bent, ranging from experimentalists who have laboriously gathered data on the relationships of different physiological, anatomical, or biochemical properties to body size, to theorists who eschew laboratory work have analyzed and debated the meaning of scaling in diverse biological systems. Peters (1983) has recently published a volume, The Ecological Implications of Body Size, in which he presents the most extensive listing available of phenomena in which size-related variation in populational, anatomical, physiological, and biochemical properties has been reported. In reviewing these multifarious scaling patterns, Peters emphasizes that there appears to be no single broad explanatory principle which can account for these scaling relationships (although, as Peters’ analysis shows, this is not from a lack of trying on the part of many physiologists over the past century!). In fact, Peters seems to view attempts to establish an all-encompassing principle with suspicion. In another recent review, Smith (1984) offers a seminal analysis of the assumptions and, closely related to these, the statistical approaches used in the analysis of scaling relationships. His analysis, like that of Peters, sounds appropriate notes of caution concerning the pitfalls lying in the path of anyone wishing to develop all-encompassing theoretical constructs in which the allometric scaling equation is wedded to physiological, biochemical, or ecological theory.