This project will assess relationships among population and community response variables and thermal stress gradients. It will also examine the relationship between population and physiological response variables. Since thermal stress is a function of intensity and duration of heating, the mathematical models will be developed more explicitly in terms of partial differential equations. The measured dependent variables will be expressed as a function of intensity and duration of thermal stress using for example, degree- heating weeks as independent variable. Functional response will be compared at the population and community levels, and at the population and physiology levels. The independent variable will be explored further, and cross correlations will be re-examined using other independent variables such as, effective degree-heating weeks which maybe considered as the integration of degree-heating weeks, water flow regimes and irradiance.
In addition, the models will also include the assessment of questions involving thermal stress scenarios such as, how many habitats support species i, and how many species are supported at site k. Finally, the models will predict the future climates, in return, these predictions will allow us to examine potential population changes over time given different climatic scenarios.
This IGMS project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).
