title: Leatherbacks swimming in silico: modeling and verifying their momentum and heat balance using computational fluid dynamics.
abstract: As global temperatures increase throughout the coming decades, species ranges will shift. New combinations of abiotic conditions will make predicting these range shifts difficult. Biophysical mechanistic niche modeling places bounds on an animal's niche through analyzing the animal's physical interactions with the environment. Biophysical mechanistic niche modeling is flexible enough to accommodate these new combinations of abiotic conditions. However, this approach is difficult to implement for aquatic species because of complex interactions among thrust, metabolic rate and heat transfer. We use contemporary computational fluid dynamic techniques to overcome these difficulties. We model the complex 3D motion of a swimming neonate and juvenile leatherback sea turtle to find power and heat transfer rates during the stroke. We combine the results from these simulations and a numerical model to accurately predict the core temperature of a swimming leatherback. These results are the first steps in developing a highly accurate mechanistic niche model, which can assists paleontologist in understanding biogeographic shifts as well as aid contemporary species managers about potential range shifts over the coming decades.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
authors.forename: Peter N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Dudley
authors.affiliation: Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bonazza
authors.affiliation: Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Inouye Regional Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America.
authors.forename: T Todd
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jeanette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wyneken
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
authors.forename: Warren P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Porter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology; D001831:Body Temperature; D004735:Energy Transfer; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008954:Models, Biological; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D013550:Swimming; D014426:Turtles / Q000502:physiology*