The scale-dependence of population density–body mass allometry: Statistical artefact or biological mechanism?

The relation between population density and body mass has vexed ecologists for nearly 30 years as a consequence of high variability in the observed slope of the relation: No single generalisation of the relation has been accepted as universally representative. Here, we use a simple computational approach to examine how observational scale (the body mass range considered) determines variation in the density–mass pattern. Our model relies on two …