Metabolic Theory: Energetic barriers

This is an early talk I gave on a possible refinement to the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE). In short, the basic equation of MTE uses an Arrhenius-like formula (which in turn assumes a constant activation energy) to predict how metabolic related rates and species richness should vary with temperature. Here, I proposed that the simple Arrhenius relationship could be replaced with a more dynamical relationship where activation energy could be predicted to change, as is often observed in biological and ecological systems. I proposed to replace the Arrhenius-like component with an Eyring equation component that is more dynamical and entropy-based. In short, I found that the Eyring formulation performed as well but not better than the more simple Arrhenius form. However, I did not investigate very far and still think there is a lot of potential to this idea.