Research Interests

Goals: To understand

1. how spatially explicit climate, topography, and vegetation interact with ectotherm and endotherm morphology, physiology and behavior, disease.
   
2. how low level contaminant/pesticide mixtures affect potential for survival, growth, reproduction and how that affects population dynamics, community structure and food web structure in time and space.
   
3. how low-level contaminant/pesticide mixtures at environmentally relevant concentrations affect/alter developmental processes, neurological function (learning abilities and aggression levels), immune function, and endocrine function.
   
4. the process of infection and the biochemical responses to bacterial and viral infections

This past year has been an exceptional one for our lab in all three areas of our research. 

• Modeling Animal Landscapes: We have 2 major papers published and 1 in review in this area of our research in 2006.  The first paper shows that we can use our newly patented mechanistic landscape scale energetics and behavior programs to calculate present and past bird distributions, food, water, and activity constraints for the rare (extinct?) Po’ouli on the island of Maui.  This is part of a larger collaborative effort to understand the dynamics of rare and endangered birds on Hawaii.  Our second paper examines distribution limits of the endangered serow deer on the island of Honshu, Japan.  There was an exceptional observation database that we were able to use to test predictions of habitat utilization.  Our distribution prediction calculations agreed with more than 99% of the observed 1 km2 grid cells occupied by the serow on Honshu.  The third paper, in review, expands our model capabilities to environmental contaminant loading at landscape scales. We calculated diving cormorant requisite fish consumption and consequent rates of toxic loading of environmental contaminants in their food for the south end of Green Bay, WI. Another paper nearly ready to submit demonstrates our ability to predict double crested cormorant migration times between Wisconsin and Louisiana and to assess their impact on fish populations in those locations.  In other work to be presented this summer in the Netherlands we are using the microclimate and animal models to model endangered amphibians in the Targee National Forest in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park. That amphibian work is in collaboration with Dr. Paul Bartelt.  Thanks to Paul’s physiological and radio telemetry data, we have been able to confirm that calculated amphibian habitat utilization and movement patterns are exceptionally consistent with radio telemetry data from free ranging toads.  The programs have demonstrated the ability to accurately calculate energetics and behavior at landscape scales for representatives of amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, pollinating insects, a species of disease carrying mosquito and butterflies.

• Subtle Biological Effects of Environmental Contaminants: We have serious concerns about children exposed to low level pesticide mixtures from lawns and in the food, water, and air that passes through their bodies.  Children do not have defensive enzymes at levels present in sexually mature adults. Our 2002 paper showed that a common lawn chemical pesticide mixture can induce abortions and resorptions of fetuses at very low parts per billion concentrations. The greatest effect was at the lowest dose.  Thanks to Richard Dwelle and Dr. James Jaeger, we have an extraordinarily sensitive new means of measuring mouse learning abilities at many levels.  We are currently conducting long term studies to explore the effects of subtle low level pesticide mixture exposures on learning abilities, immune function, hormone levels, and developmental disorders.

• Early detection of infectious disease: We have new state-of-the-art technologies that can detect isotopic ratio changes in breath due to catabolic events on a continuous, noninvasive flow-through basis.  We have been able to confirm all of our prior data using mass spectrometry and are now observing in 24 hour a day experiments the process of infection in real-time.  Our early data indicate that we can detect such changes within approximately two hours of the time of administration of an infection.  This would have immense benefits in intensive care units and many other applications.  We have one patent and three new applications pending or in process covering our research discoveries. We have founded an off-campus company, Isomark, LLC, that may license and develop commercial applications as it sees fit. However, all fundamental research will be done exclusively through our research group and patented through WARF. 

Courses:

Zoology 101:  Animal Biology
Zoology 504:  Modeling Animal Landscapes
Zoology 400: Topics in Biology
Zoology 956: Seminar - Ecology

Note to prospective graduate students:

I look for high intelligence, independence, creativity, and imagination in my students. I also look for broad interests, someone who likes personal challenges, and a synthetic capacity.
Opportunities in my lab are largely limited by time and the student's capacity to learn.  We do interdisciplinary research and collaborate with faculty in engineering sciences, global climate and vegetation modeling, medical and veterinary sciences, and the physical sciences.

Graduate students currently supervised:

Lucas Moyer-Horner, lrmoyerh@wisc.edu
Present and past landscape ecology, energetics, behavior and distribution limits of yellow bellied marmots in western United States.

Jeremiah Yahn, jyahn@wisc.edu
Modeling amphibian energetics in the upper midwest.

Angela Dassow, amdassow@wisc.edu
Ecology, energetics and nesting behavior of rare and endangered turtles in the Amazon basin.

Julia A. Haviland (jahaviland@wisc.edu)
Impacts of pesticide mixtures in food and water on development, neurological, immune, and endocrine function.

Students supervised who've recently earned graduate degrees:

Sue Vang, M.S. 2008  

Mark Jankowski, Ph.D. 2007
Environmental toxicology, immune suppression and infectious disease. 

Joe Meisel, Ph.D. 2004
    How habitat fragmentation interacts with climate to affect distribution of insects and their avian predators in the tropics of Central America.
(Abstract)

Auston M. Kilpatrick, Ph.D.
    Aspects of community ecology, including: mechanisms generating patterns of mammalian diversity, spatial and temporal variation in competitive interactions, and the coevolution of avian malaria and native and introduced Hawaiian birds. (Abstract)

Maria Fernanda Cavieres Fernandez, Ph.D.
    Reproductive and developmental toxicity of a commercial herbicide formulation in mice, (Abstract)

Christopher R. Tracy, PhD
    Pattern and theory of geographic variation in physiology and body size in Sauromalus obesus. (Abstract)

Elizabeth Sutherland, MS
    Dispersion of Timber wolves in north central Wisconsin

Selected Publications

• Kearney, M. W.P. Porter, C. Williams, S. Ritchie, and A. A. Hoffmann. 2009. Integrating biophysical models and evolutionary theory to predict climatic impacts on species’ ranges: the dengue mosquito Aedes aegypti in Australia. Functional Ecology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01538.x
• Kearney, M.R. and W.P. Porter. 2009. Mechanistic niche modelling: combining physiological and spatial data to predict species' ranges. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01277.x
• Mitchell, N J., M.R. Kearney, N.J. Nelson and W.P. Porter. 2008. Predicting the fate of a living fossil: how will global warming affect embryonic development, sex determination and hatching phenology in tuatara? Proc. R. Soc. B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0438.
• Kearney, M., Phillips, B.L., Tracy, C.R., Christian, K.A., Betts, G. and W.P. Porter. 2008. Modelling species distributions without using species distributions: the cane toad in Australia under current and future climates. Ecography. doi: 10.1111/j.2008.0906-7590-05457.x.
• Natori, Y. and W.P. Porter. 2006. Habitat Evaluation for the Japanese Serow (Capricornis crispus) by Energetics Landscape Modeling. Ecol. Applications. Ecological Applications, 17(5), 2007, pp. 1441–1459.
• Kilpatrick, A.M, W.A. Mitchell, W.P. Porter, and D.J. Currie. 2006. Testing a mechanistic explanation for the latitudinal gradient in mammalian species diversity. Evol. Ecol. Res. 8(2):333-344.
• Porter, W.P., N.P. Vakharia, W.D. Klousie and D. Duffy. 2006. Po’ouli landscape behavior, diets and distribution on Maui. Int. Comp. Biol. 1-16. on line doi:10.1093/icb/icl051
• Michael J. Angilletta, Jr., Peter H. Niewiarowski, Arthur E. Dunham, Adam D. Leache´, and Warren P. Porter.  2004.   Bergmann’s Clines in Ectotherms: Illustrating a Life-History Perspective with Sceloporine Lizards.  The American Naturalist.  164(6): 168-183.
• Maurer, B.A., Brown, J.H., Dayan, T., Enquist, B.J., Ernest, S.K.M., Hadly, E.A., Haskell, J.P., Jablonski, D., Jones, K.E., Kaufman, D.M., Lyons, S.K., Niklas, K.J., Porter, W.P., Roy, K.,Smith, F.A., Tiffney, B., Willig, M.R.  2004.  Similarities in Body Size Distributions of Small-Bodied Flying Vertebrates.  Evolutionary Ecology Research.  6: 783-797.
• Kearney, M. and W.P. Porter.  2004.  Mapping the Fundamental Niche:  Physiology, Climate, and the Distribution of a Nocturnal Lizard.  Ecology.  85(11):  3119-3131.
• Porter, W.P., J. Sabo, C. R. Tracy, J. Reichman, and N. Ramankutty. 2002. Physiology on a landscape scale: plant-animal interactions. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 42(3): 431-453.
• Cavieres M.F., J. Jaeger, W. P. Porter.  2002. Developmental toxicity of a commercial herbicide mixture in mice. I. Effects on embryo implantation and litter size. Environmental Health Perspectives 110:1081-1085
• Mitchell, W. A. and W. P. Porter.  2001.  Foraging games and species diversity. Annales Zoologici.  38 (1): 89-98.
• Porter, W.P., S. Budaraju, W.E. Stewart and N. Ramankutty. 2000. Calculating Climate Effects on Birds and Mammals: Impacts on Biodiversity, Conservation, Population Parameters, and Global Community Structure. Am. Zool. 40(4): 597-630.
• Porter, W.P., J. Jaeger and I. Carlson. 1999.  (Part 1) (Part 2)  Endocrine, immune and behavioral effects of aldicarb (carbamate), atrazine (triazine) and nitrate (fertilizer) mixtures at groundwater concentrations.  Toxicology and Industrial Health.  15 (1-2): 133-150.
• Porter, W.P. and K. Paris. 1998. Creating a strategic plan and implementing quality management techniques in an academic department.  Office of Quality Improvement publication U. Wis., Madison.
• Budaraju, S., W. E. Stewart and W. P. Porter. 1997. Mixed Convective Heat and Moisture Transfer from a Horizontal Furry Cylinder in Transverse Flow. Int. J. Heat & Mass Transfer 40:2273-2281.
• Budaraju, S., Stewart, W.E. and W.P. Porter. 1994.  Prediction of forced ventilation in animal fur from a measured pressure distribution.  Proc. Roy. Soc. London  B 256: 41-46.
• Tracy, C.R., W.R. Welch and W.P. Porter. 1980. Properties of air. A manual for use in biophysical ecology. 3rd ed. Technical manual. U.W. Laboratory for Biophysical Ecology. 41 pp.

Niche Mapper™ is a patented collection of three mechanistic models that include a broadly applicable microclimate, ectotherm and endotherm model of heat and mass transfer and animal behavior. The microclimate model allows the translation of coarse spatial data, such as digital elevation models (DEMs), vegetation data, weather station data and spatially interpolated climate records, into microclimatic environmental variables relevant to the thermal and hydric ecology of organisms. These variables include air temperature, humidity and wind speed gradients above ground, soil thermal profiles and solar and thermal infrared radiation environments.

he ectotherm and endotherm models can use the output of the microclimate model, or user-collected data, to solve energy and mass balances for organisms contingent on the morphological, physiological and behavioral traits entered by the user. /Mass and heat balances are coupled, i.e. the heat balance specifies the mass flows that must occur through the gut and the respiratory system to sustain calculated metabolic/water loss rates that are dependent on the animal and local environmental properties./ The basic outputs include body temperature, metabolic rate and water loss rate in hourly time steps. These can be translated into functions of activity, dispersal, survival, growth and reproduction potential, landscape utilization patterns and distribution limits, as well as selection strengths in the context of spatial evolutionary studies.

The ectotherm model can also be used to simulate inanimate objects, such as ponds or water containers if the user chooses. Steady-state and transient (large thermal mass) scenarios can be run, and behavioral code is available for a range of organism behaviors (e.g. fossorial, arboreal, terrestrial, flying, diving, hibernating), although some ‘tweaking’ of the behavioral subroutines may be necessary for your organism. /The user may choose from an assortment of default geometries or may define their own set of geometries for the head, neck, torso, front legs and back legs.

The programs are Fortran executables. When used for landscape scale calculations, rather than point simulations, /there is a Perl program to communicate with MySQL databases for input and output and to call the Fortran executables. There is a set of user Niche Mapper™ instructions that is available as well as instructions for the use of MySQL to set up the databases and for Perl to interface the databases and the Fortran executable codes.

This site is under construction and we are working on developing more user friendly interfaces and a detailed manual. At this stage, please contact me via email for information about, and access to, the programs.

Outreach

• Subject search engine for the Web
• Legal help for chemical exposures
• Human exposure to chemical contaminants
• Healthy alternatives in the home
• Toxics in your backyard?
• Links to sources of information on biological effects of environmental contaminants
• Links to alternative agriculture sites and information
• Link to high quality environmental contaminants measurement
• Links to organic pest control
•  Links to Organic Lawn Care

• Links to human exposure to chemical contaminants
• Recent references to biological effects of pesticides

• Creating a Strategic Plan
• Chemicals and human development...latest data