Zoology
504: Modeling Animal Landscapes syllabus
Warren Porter
wpporter@wisc.edu
207 Zoology
Research Building
262-1719/262-0029
Lecture
outline
Chapter
1. Introduction: what kind of problems these models can
address. (Two lectures)
Chapter
2. How to build mechanistic
models. A basic introduction
to thermodynamics and five basic rules for defining any system and applying
the five rules to heat, mass, and molar balances (the rest of the chapters).
Chapter
3. Conduction without
heat generation (Boards, hollow
logs, hollow bumblebee nests): how to set up and solve a simple problem using
calculus; how to find boundary conditions and use them to evaluate integration
constants, the ‘real’ work in solving a problem. This also illustrates how
important boundary conditions are and how they can modify the ‘general’ solution
form of a problem, a situation commonly ignored in some important ecologically
oriented models.
Chapter
4. Conduction
with internal heat generation of plane, cylindrical, spherical and ellipsoidal
geometries (A termite mound, a weasel, a hibernating chipmunk, an ellipsoidal
tuna). More practice in setting
up and solving simple problems; the tuna problem uses prior problem experience
to guess a solution and test it for complex three-dimensional geometries -
the only realistic way to easily solve analytically for a moderately complex
geometry)
Chapter
5. Convection principles,
boundary layers, measurements, dimensionless numbers, empirical recipes for
standard geometries, animal bodies and appendages (Fish in streams, frogs,
lizards, spiders, birds, mice and elephants)
Chapter
6. Infrared radiation
exchange; the nature of infrared radiation, basic laws, configuration factor
algebra-how to determine radiant exchange between discrete surfaces such
as butterfly wings and the body Butterflies in the shade on tree trunks vs.
tall slender plant stalks (Is climate really behind the northerly migration
of some species of butterfly populations in Europe over the last hundred years?)
Chapter
7. Solar
radiation. Calculating
solar radiation incident on the top of the atmosphere, on a horizontal surface
on the ground, solar radiation on any sloping surface, configuration factors
applied to diffuse solar radiation (Solar Radiation Exchange and Multiple
Reflections between Surfaces, such
as butterfly wings reflecting or transmitting solar radiation to warm the
body for flight.)
Chapter
8. Mass transfer by convection and diffusion (gaseous and liquid
water; oxygen; nutrients in the gut). A frog on a moist substrate (Might climate change
be affecting amphibian declines?) A lizard or turtle egg buried in soil (How
do soil temperatures and moistures affect reptile distributions?) Frog skin
and general lung exchange models, fish eggs of different sizes (species) ''buried''
in water at
different velocities and temperatures).
Chapter
9. Modeling
Transients - analytical and numerical methods.
Galapagos marine iguana
heating and cooling rates due to different body sizes: impact on digestion. Marine iguanas in Galapagos (why are marine
iguanas of different body sizes on each of the islands in Galapagos, when they
are all from essentially the same gene pool?)
Chapter
10. Momentum transfer. Basic fluid mechanics
Chapter
11. Modeling microclimates:
impacts on local heat transfer;
Chapter
12. GIS extensions of local
animal solutions. The rare and
endangered orange bellied parrots in
Appendix 1. Allometry. Calculating animal surface areas and volumes. To be completed.
Appendix 2. Modeling porous insulation from first principles. Elk in