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Generality of relationships between optimal performance and thermal traits across taxa

Determine whether relationships between the optimal performance value Y(T_opt) and thermal traits, such as 1/T_opt and 1/T_ran, generalize to all thermal traits and hold across diverse taxa beyond the cases already documented.

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Background

The theory predicts relationships between the value of a biological quantity at its optimal temperature and various thermal traits. Empirical evidence exists in some taxa (e.g., for relationships between Y(T_opt) and 1/T_opt or 1/T_ran), but the breadth of these relationships remains unclear.

The authors explicitly flag the need to test whether such relationships are universal across traits and taxa.

References

Despite there is evidence for a relationship between $Y(T_{opt})$ and $1/T_{opt}$ and $1/T_{ran}$ in some taxa \parencite{huey1984jack}, it remains an open question whether this is true for all traits and in different taxa.

— Toward a General Theory for the Scaling and Universality of Thermal Responses in Biology (2503.05128 - Arroyo et al., 7 Mar 2025) in Box 2, Scaling behavior in thermal performances