The function estimates heat loss associated with evaporative water loss for an amphibian (Spotila et al. 1992) or lizard. The lizard estimation is based on empirical measurements in Porter et al. (1973) ).

Qevaporation(A, T_b, taxon, e_s = NA, e_a = NA, hp = NA, H = NA, r_i = NA)

Arguments

A

numeric surface area (m2).

T_b

numeric body temperature (K).

taxon

character organism type. Current choices: "lizard", "amphibian_wetskin" (fully wet skin), "amphibian" (not fully wet skin).

e_s

numeric saturation water vapor density at skin surface (kg m-3) (needed if amphibian).

e_a

numeric saturation water vapor density in ambient air (kg m-3) (needed if amphibian).

hp

numeric relative humidity (0-1) (needed if amphibian).

H

numeric convective heat transfer coefficient (W m-2 K-1) (needed if amphibian).

r_i

numeric internal (cutaneous) resistance to vapor transport (s m-1) (needed if amphibian).

Value

numeric evaporative heat loss (W).

References

Porter WP, Mitchell JW, Bekman A, DeWitt CB (1973). “Behavioral implications of mechanistic ecology: thermal and behavioral modeling of desert ectotherms and their microenvironments.” Oecologia, 13, 1-54.

Spotila JR, Feder ME, Burggren WW (1992). “Biophysics of Heat and Mass Transfer.” Environmental Physiology of the Amphibians. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo3636401.html.

Examples

  Qevaporation(A      = 0.1,
               T_b    = 293,
               taxon = "amphibian",
               e_s = 0.003,
               e_a = 0.002,
               hp     = 0.5,
               H     = 20,
               r_i   = 50)
#> [1] 4.612476
  Qevaporation(A     = 0.1,
               T_b   = 293,
               taxon = "lizard")
#> [1] 1.043334