PARENT SESSION
Symposium #24: Crossroads of plant, animal, and microbial ecology.
Sponsored by ESA Physiological Ecology Section
Organized by: V. P. Gutshick and A. J. Bloom.
Friday, August 10, 2001. 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Madison Ballroom B
How climate and vegetation affect animal functional groups .
Porter, Warren1, 1
ABSTRACT- A state-of-the-art set of microclimate and endotherm models has been developed in conjunction with an interface to GIS based global climate data, topographic data, vegetation, and soil type data. The first principles endotherm models include novel thermoregulatory, digestive tract, and coupled heat and mass transfer models of the body and its porous insulation. We can calculate metabolic costs that are in agreement with experimental data for birds and mammals from mice to elephants and from hummingbirds to ostriches. We are using these models to calculate activity times in the field, and potential for growth and reproduction as climates and body sizes vary. The results suggest that climate variation in time and space and types of vegetation present each play important roles in determining what functional types of animals can coexist as a community at any given location over diurnal (hourly) and annual climate cycles. Tests of the models' ability to estimate field activity time are in close agreement with experimental data for the African springbok, where sufficient experimental data are available from the literature to provide a test of the calculations. An application to the rare and endangered Australian Orange-bellied parrot will also be presented.
KEY WORDS: Climate, Energetics, Landscape ecology, Physiology