---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: hybrid
_id: '22485'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: Allometric scaling relations are widely used to link biological processes
    to body size in nature. Several studies have shown that such scaling laws hold
    also for natural ecosystems, including individual trees and forests, riverine
    metabolism, and river network organization. However, the derivation of scaling
    laws for catchment-scale water and carbon fluxes has not been achieved so far.
    Here, we focus on scaling relations of catchment green metabolism, defined as
    the set of ecohydrological and biogeochemical processes through which vegetation
    assemblages in catchments maintain their structure and react to the surrounding
    environment. By revising existing plant size–density relationships and integrating
    them across large-scale domains, we show that the ecohydrological fluxes occurring
    at the catchment scale are invariant with respect to the above-ground vegetation
    biomass per unit area of the basin, while they scale linearly with catchment size.
    We thus demonstrate that the sublinear scaling of plant metabolism results in
    an isometric scaling at catchment and regional scales. Deviations from such predictions
    are further shown to collapse onto a common distribution, thus incorporating natural
    fluctuations due to resource limitations into a generalized scaling theory. Results
    from scaling arguments are supported by hyperresolution ecohydrological simulations
    and remote sensing observations.
article_number: e2410736121
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Francesca
  full_name: Bassani, Francesca
  last_name: Bassani
- first_name: Simone
  full_name: Fatichi, Simone
  id: cf8e546b-a9b0-11f0-a43b-aa89ed1b56d6
  last_name: Fatichi
- first_name: Andrea
  full_name: Rinaldo, Andrea
  last_name: Rinaldo
- first_name: Sara
  full_name: Bonetti, Sara
  last_name: Bonetti
citation:
  ama: 'Bassani F, Fatichi S, Rinaldo A, Bonetti S. Toward a metabolic theory of catchments:
    Scaling of water and carbon fluxes with size. <i>Proceedings of the National Academy
    of Sciences</i>. 2024;121(42). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410736121">10.1073/pnas.2410736121</a>'
  apa: 'Bassani, F., Fatichi, S., Rinaldo, A., &#38; Bonetti, S. (2024). Toward a
    metabolic theory of catchments: Scaling of water and carbon fluxes with size.
    <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>. National Academy of Sciences.
    <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410736121">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410736121</a>'
  chicago: 'Bassani, Francesca, Simone Fatichi, Andrea Rinaldo, and Sara Bonetti.
    “Toward a Metabolic Theory of Catchments: Scaling of Water and Carbon Fluxes with
    Size.” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>. National Academy
    of Sciences, 2024. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410736121">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410736121</a>.'
  ieee: 'F. Bassani, S. Fatichi, A. Rinaldo, and S. Bonetti, “Toward a metabolic theory
    of catchments: Scaling of water and carbon fluxes with size,” <i>Proceedings of
    the National Academy of Sciences</i>, vol. 121, no. 42. National Academy of Sciences,
    2024.'
  ista: 'Bassani F, Fatichi S, Rinaldo A, Bonetti S. 2024. Toward a metabolic theory
    of catchments: Scaling of water and carbon fluxes with size. Proceedings of the
    National Academy of Sciences. 121(42), e2410736121.'
  mla: 'Bassani, Francesca, et al. “Toward a Metabolic Theory of Catchments: Scaling
    of Water and Carbon Fluxes with Size.” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy
    of Sciences</i>, vol. 121, no. 42, e2410736121, National Academy of Sciences,
    2024, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410736121">10.1073/pnas.2410736121</a>.'
  short: F. Bassani, S. Fatichi, A. Rinaldo, S. Bonetti, Proceedings of the National
    Academy of Sciences 121 (2024).
das_tickbox: '1'
date_created: 2026-07-27T12:30:23Z
date_published: 2024-10-09T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-07-30T11:27:23Z
day: '09'
ddc:
- '550'
doi: 10.1073/pnas.2410736121
extern: '1'
fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410736121
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '       121'
issue: '42'
language:
- iso: eng
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410736121
month: '10'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
publication: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1091-6490
  issn:
  - 0027-8424
publication_status: published
publisher: National Academy of Sciences
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: 'Toward a metabolic theory of catchments: Scaling of water and carbon fluxes
  with size'
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by_nc_nd.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
    (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
  short: CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 121
year: '2024'
...