River basin metabolism: co-organization of vegetation and runoff dynamics

The metabolism of a river basin is defined as the set of processes through which the basin maintains its structure and respond to its environment. A principle of of equal metabolic rate per unit area throughout the basin structure is developed and tested. It is shown to have profound implications for the spatial organization of river basin hydrologic dynamics. Allometric scaling of transpiration with total amount of runoff in subbasins- similar to Kleiber's type of law- is similarly demonstrated.