Teoria de escala metabólica (MST) : análise e investigação de fatores restritivos dos biomas que alteram o coeficiente alométrico

Abstract

Metabolic Scale Theory (MST) began with the work of West, Brown, and Enquist, who developed a quantitative model that uses biophysical constraints, fractal geometry, and allometric relationships to understand the shape and attributes of those required to present a network distribution. By applying no ecological system it is possible to carry out the structure and metabolic expenditure in gas exchange at the individual level as well as at the community level. However, after 24 years of existence, it is still not well accepted, being criticized for its scope of validity and deviations between theoretical values, and data obtained in the field. The objective of this work was to carry out an integrative literature review of the last five years of MST application (2015 − 2020), in order to establish the state of the art of the theory by identifying the restrictive factors that affect the allometric coefficient, use new methodologies in data collection and delimit the scope of validity for its application in the vegetation of the state of Mato Grosso, with a focus on species from the cerrado. From the results, the use of remote sensing combined with the MST field methodology stands out, for the study of allometric relationships and gas exchanges of the ecological system on a macro scale, it was observed that there is an impact of the succession stage with the allometric relationships of the trunk and roots of plants. The allometric relationships of leaves prove to be less susceptible to several external and internal factors, being a more reliable option for analyzing allometric relationships in trees, another recently addressed is the use of MST in plantations.